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How to Organize, Classify and Teach a Country School. 

(Cloth bound, $1.00.) 

This book is especially adapted for Country School work. 
It aims: 
To tell the most in the fewest words. 
To place before teachers only what is practical. 
To enable teachers to classify their pupils and systematize their countrv 

school work. * 

To reduce the number of classes to the minimum. 
To give teachers practical methods of presenting each branch. 
To help teachers to educate themselves at home. 
To lead teachers to the study of mental philosophy. 
To set before teachers points of school law with which every teachei 

should be familiar. 

"All the learning of Lord Bacon would not enable a man to make a watch, 
unless he had first practiced the trade ; all the science of Isaac Newton would 
not impart the power to navigate a ship, unless the captain had previously 
learned the art of seamanship ; and the learning of both, combined, would not 

ENABLE A MAN TO MANACE A DISTRICT SCHOOL, 
and attain theohjects for which it was designed, without a careful study and 
practice of the principles of Teaching." 

THOMAS HUNTER. 



The book mentioned above is written for Country School Teachers. It con- 
tains nothing but what is practical— no theorizing, no superfluous ivoi-ds. 

It will be especially helpful to teachers using 
being published by tbe same author. 

Special arrangements are made with County Superintendents who use the 
Classification Register, aud liberal discounts given 'to their teachers. 

Terms quoted on application. 



WELCH'S CLASSIFICATION REC1STER, 



Publications for County Superintendents. 



WELCH'S System of Close Supervis- 
ion ior Country Schools. 
Classification Record. 
Reporting Blanks to Co. Supt. 
Teacher's Reports to Parents. 
Certificates of Promotion. 
Lithographed Diplomas. 



Teacher's Certificates. 
Institute Diplomas. 
Institute Records. 
Iustitute Note Books. 
Examination Paper. 
Enrollment Slips. 



Teachers' and School Officers' Books and Supplies. 



"How to Organize, Classify and Teach 
a Country School . " 

Teachers' "Memory Gems." 

New Opening Exercises. 

How to Study— a book for self im- 
provement. 



Daily Register. 
Class Records. 
Order Books and all School Blanks, 

Contracts, etc. 
Indestructible Erasers . 
School Supplies of all Kinds . 



A Prize for Pupils. 



In order to introduce our Teachers' Books, Dailv Registers, School Blanks, 
Diplomas. Order Books, and especially our Everlasting Blackboard Erasers, 
we make this offer : To each pupil wno calls school officers' and teachers' at- 
tention to our advertisements and gets them to order goods to the amount of 
$3, we will give one dollar's worth of any of our books or publications the 
pupil may select. 

Books for Pupils' General Reading. 

All the books mentioned on paces 3S and 39 of this book, also any other 
book published can be obtained from 

W. M. WELCH, Publisher, 

CHICAGO, 417 Dearborn St. OMAHA, 608 and 609 Paxton Block. 



HOW TO STUDY. 



A GUIDE FOR PUPILS' SELF IMPROVEMENT 



IN- 



SCHOOL AND HOME 



> 



I 




'I 



— BY- 

y 



W. M. Welch, A. M., 

Author of •« How to Organize, Classify and Teach a Country 

School," "Classification Record and System of Close 

Supervision" for County Superintendents, 

Teachers' "Memory Gems," &c. 



CHICAGO : \\ OMAHA : 

417 Dearborn St. Wsi^te, 609 Paxton Blk 

W. M. WELCH, Publisher. 

1889. 




I 



iC 



COPYRIGHT, 1889, 

BY 

W. M. WELCH. 



$ 



OT "To His Majesty the King" to court favor; not "To 
His Honor," the official creature of political chance, 
to court influence; but 

To one whose purity and nobility of character is 
worthy of emulation by the youths of our land; a man 
but little known to the public; a man whose daily life 
exhales a soul's sweetness, and is embossed in a beauty 
which many of his fellow men having eyes, see not; 
a man so clean within that as said of Madison, if you 
could turn him inside out you would find no spot or 
tarnish; a man too generous to be what the world 
fa calls rich, too unselfish to attain what the world calls 
self aggrandizement, too truly wise to barter the sweeter, 
higher things of life for the bauble of wealth and 
position ; 

My friend, Walter McCollum, 
This little book is affectionately dedicated by 

THE AUTHOR. 



i 



PREFACE 



Knowledge and wisdom are very different things. 
Many people acquire knowledge; few get wisdom. 
The manner and method of acquisition is of great 
importance. The faculty of acquiring and commit- 
ting is not one of the highest order; in fact it is often 
found in inverse ratio to the power to originate, 
apply and utilize, and the wrong habit of acquiring 
knowledge may do more harm to the student than 
the knowledge itself benefits. 

"Habits of thought and of life are more than 
knowledge, and the habits formed in early life may 
render knowledge useless and even harmful." 
Many faithful, hardworking students often form 
plodding habits of thought that render their work, 
on the whole, more harmful than helpful. The ad- 
vice so often given to pupils by speech makers in 
schools to "sit down doggedly to the work, and keep 
at it, and you'll surely succeed in time," would be all 
well enough if the end and aim were to commit the 
Koran, Talmud or sacred Vedas. But progressive 
educators believe more in unfolding the student's 
powers under proper conditions than in branding 
them with facts. 

Acquisition should be more a means than an end. 

The ultimate end of study is not to make but to 
cause to groiv, — clear, active, healthful, vigorous, 
powerful minds; not to acquire facts alone, but also 
"the fire that dissolves all facts." 

"Labor conquers all things," "A constant drop 
wears a stone," and "The story of the hare and the 



6 PREFACE. 

tortoise,'' as lessons for the guidance of pupils, ought 
to have a new and broader interpretation. The 
wide-awake student has an eye open to another side 
of the moral of the tortoise story, and arises to ask, 
for information, whether the hare, after his rests and 
naps along the road, was not in better mental and 
physical condition at the end of the race than the all- 
night trudging tortoise. 

Not so much what facts a student gleans from a 
study as what he is after it; not the knowledge 
acquired but the wisdom developed; not the learn- 
ing of the books but the healthful growth of a man, 
physically, mentally and morally, is the true end of 
education. 

The knights of old rigorously observed the chiv- 
alrous maxim, "Above all things a gentleman." Let 
the student adopt the sentiment and correct his 
habit of study by the effect on his faculties, and re- 
member, in every branch of learning, "Above all- 
things a perfect man." 

W. M. Welch. 
November 15, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Activity and Vigor of Thought 9 

Subjective and Objective Study .10 

Energy, or Power to Study 12 

Judicious Expenditure of Energy . . 14 

A Habit of Thoroughness 18 

Thoroughness in School Work 19 

What is Hard Work ? 21 

How to Study Beading and Spelling , 24 

Thought Development 27 

Silent Beading 29 

System in Beading 31 

Selection of Books to Bead 36 

Books of Bef erence 38 

Books for Younger Pupils 38 

Books for Older Pupils 39 

How to Study Language and Grammar 41 

Methods of Language Culture 44 

Written Language Work in Connection with Other 

Studies 46 

Language and Grammar, as Separate Studies 48 

Advanced Work in Language 56 

How to Study Geography 58 

Take a Survey of What may be Learned t . 60 

Advanced Work in Geography 62 

How to Study History 65 

How to Study Arithmetic 71 

How to Study Physiology 75 

How to Study the Elementary Sciences 79 

A few Things We Would Learn About 81 



8 CONTENTS. 

Character Building 83 

An Arithmetic of Character 84 

Truth, Justice, Honesty, Frankness, Conscientious- 
ness 84 

Nobleness, Boldness, Courage, Valor 8q 

Benevolence, Love and Faith 89 

How to Know Yourself. 92 

Chart of Character for Self-Improvement 94 

How to Use the Chart for Self-Improvement 95 

Detailed Explanation of Elements of Character 96 

How to Cultivate or Eestrain any Faculty 106 

The Tour of the Virtues ; a Philosopher's Tale 109 



HOW" TO STUDY 



ACTIVITY AND VIGOR OF THOUGHT. 

One hour's bright, wide awake, concentrated, in- 
terested study is worth a day's plodding. You de- 
sire to advance, to complete your present grade or 
course. You determine to work faithfully, to use 
every effort to accomplish the task you have set for 
yourself. In doing this, pupils make a mistake in 
nine cases out of ten. The so-called faithful students 
often become the merest mopes. 

Be a faithful student by all means, but don't mis- 
lead yourself into believing that persistent plodding 
over a lesson is faithful work. It is often worse than 
no work at all. To plod, ponder and mope over a 
lesson either when the mind is too tired or the sub- 
ject uninteresting and the action of the faculties 
mechanical will weaken the power of vigorous con- 
centration of the faculties, lead to distraction and 
wandering, and beget a moping habit of thought. 

When you are tired, quit. When you can't make 
a subject interesting to yourself, quit. When the 
edge of the mind has been dulled, quit. Take up 
some other branch. A change may rest you and 
may re- vivify interest; if not, it were better to en- 
gage in play or take a walk, than to continue to eke 
out your mental energy in drops over a lesson when 
it should flow in strong currents. 

Do you know what I mean? Take a lesson in his- 
tory for example. If you read it with interest you 
can't stop with pieces and bits of a subject; you 
want enough to complete your conception either of 
the cause of a war, the plan of a campaign, or the 



10 HOW TO STUDY. 

related events of an administration, etc. When the 
mind is awake and interested, it reaches out from 
item to item, and will not stop pending the rounding 
up of a topic or sub-topic. This leads to the health- 
ful correlation of events. The law of association has 
been fulfilled, the attention is wide awake and con- 
centrated, and the foundation for a correct and last- 
ing memory is laid. 

But attempt to force facts upon the mind in which 
you have no interest and, however faithfully you 
may labor, the lesson will lack life and spirit and the 
points committed will be isolated facts. 

What is true in the study or history is true in all 
other branches. It is useless to plod through a lesson 
with a hope of learning something. If a lesson is dull, 
better take steps to enliven it. Before forcing food 
into the body it is best to first take steps to create an 
appetite; otherwise subsequent digestion will be 
poor. Mental nausea is probably no more infrequent 
than physical nausea. 

II. 

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE STUDY. 

How many pupils can tell me the real end they 
should aim to reach in any study? Nearly all we 
ask reply that it is to learn the branch studied. Un- 
fortunately, this is usually the case. There is in the 
school, perhaps, as much dishonesty to one's self in 
acquiring knowledge as there is in business to others 
in acquiring fortunes. And the absolute acquisition 
of knowledge or fortune regardless of the means 
may, nay too often does, prove more harmful than 
helpful. 

Knowledge and wealth — how these fruits lure us 
on from year to year, on tip toe with outstretched 
hand to seize it only to turn to ashes in the grasp! 



HOW TO STUDY. 11 

This one has it, but health is lost; that one has it, 
but the fountains of the heart are dried up. My 
friend over the way has it, but he can't apply it; he 
has lost sympathy with society, lost companionship 
with friends, sacrificed the relation of brother, hus- 
band or father in his family. Another friend has 
acquired many facts, and shoved them away in his 
head somewhere like reference books we keep to 
consult, though usually not as reliable or accessible 
when wanted; and the only talent he has to show 
for it is that of acquiring more. 

The anecdote is told of a father who fed his three 
sons on beef, mutton and pork respectively. When 
grown to men he called them and asked for their 
respective talents. "X," said the first, "can stop the 
mill wheel with my arm;" "I," said the second, "can 
outstrip the wind in the race;" "Well," said the 
third, who had been fed on pork, "I can eat more if 
father will furnish it." 

To know how, and to have the power to do are 
two things not always found in the same person. 

And now let us note the difference between sub- 
jective and objective study ; and the true end and 
aim of study. 

As stated before, most pupils hold before them- 
selves the acquisition of facts and of knowledge., 
That end is important, but not the most im- 
portant, and should be held subordinate. The 
real end is the harmonious, healthful growth of all 
the faculties, and the learning of lessons, and the 
acquisition of facts may or may not tend to this 
end. The habit of thinking, the thoroughness of 
thought, the vigor of thought, the depth of thought, 
the clearness of thought, that habit of mental action 
that grows strong by use, that is of more import- 
ance in every lesson than the facts acquired. 

What does it profit one to thoroughly canvass 



12 HOW TO STUDY. 

fifty pages of any book, if in the doing of it one 
has acquired a slow, moping, lumbering habit of 
thought ? Better do half that amount only and 
keep the faculties healthy, fresh and vigorous while 
working. 

What do I mean ? I mean while you study, 
study vigorously, with faculties wide awake and 
powers concentrated. When you get tired, stop. 
Don't drift along after the wind has ceased to fill 
your sails. You will only get into a moping habit 
of thought while deceiving yourself with the notion 
that you are becoming a diligent, faithful student. 
Take up some new branch that you can study with 
renewed interest and avidity, or quit. See to it that 
your manner of study and habit of thought are 
correct and healthful, and acquisition will take care 
of itself. 

Whether you have solved your problem or not is 
not the question of importance, but the amount and 
character of mental exercise and effort you have 
commanded in the attempt. If that is well done, 
you grow stronger for each to-morrow, no matter if 
the problem remains unsolved for a week. 

III. 

ENERGY, OR POWER TO STUDY. 

In the foregoing section we discussed the two 
ends of study, acquisition and growth. We must 
say more of working for growth or attending to 
the manner of doing, the habit of thought and ac- 
tion. 

The real result desired is power — power to think, 
to act, to utilize, control and direct all our mental and 
moral forces. Each person creates or generates en- 
ergy or force. This energy may pass off through the 
mind or through the muscles, in either case properly 



HOW TO STUDY. 13 

or improperly directed, or it may be frittered away 
and lost. 

When we stand beside the awful Falls of Niag- 
ara and listen to its tremendous roar and see its 
angry surging tides below, we only witness the 
waste of energy or force enough to lift the same 
water to the altitude of the river above. We say it 
is energy wasted, which, if properly controlled and 
directed, would run all our factories and do all our 
work. But the question is how to best control and 
direct that energy. 

Each person has a similar problem to decide for 
himself. In every human being there are forces 
more wonderful and awful in their passage through 
the various channels, heights and depths of our be- 
ing than those that dash Niagara's waters into foam 
and spray, and hurl it into seething waves and 
whirlpools. Unlike the forces of Niagara, they vary 
at different times. In many persons they flow on 
unheeded and unused. 

Do you know what we mean by the energies and 
forces in each person ? You cannot lift your hand 
without expending energy, nor walk, nor think, nor 
talk, nor play. Every form of exercise, mental or 
physical, requires expenditure of energy. Where 
does it all come from ? It is created in your body 
by a process not very unlike that by which energy 
or force is made in an engine, where we know there 
is enough made to move whole trains of cars. In 
an engine coal and water is the food and drink 
taken. When the coal burns, it heats the water 
which is changed into steam, and when the steam 
forces its way out it is compelled to move the great 
arm of the engine. In your body the food differs 
from coal and water ; but you will learn in your 
physiology that the process of utilizing the food and 
giving oxygen to the blood is a kind of burning 



14 HOW TO STUDY. 

process also, that gives off energy. Let us look 
now as to the best way to use this energy. 

IV. 
JUDICIOUS EXPENDITURE OF ENERGY. 

A few words now on the judicious expenditure 
of energy. 

Vital force, strength, life element: This is a 
fortune to every one who knows how to spend it 
wisely. It is God's own gift to His children. It is 
the great equalizer of man to man. Though one 
person surpasses in amount produced, another excels 
in the application of what he has. Apparent defi- 
ciencies in one direction are usually repaid by com- 
pensations in another. He who is willing to work 
and expend his energies wisely and well may have 
the independence of a king among men in any legiti- 
mate vocation of life. 

Wealth is not always sur.h a one's portion. That 
may require other attributes besides the honest, 
economical expenditure of our energies. Nor should 
wealth ever be the ultimate end of our labors, but 
rather a sort of natural consequence. 

A bishop wrote a book out of his heart to help his 
fellow-man. His good business habits led him to 
make wise arrangements for its publication. The 
result was, it brought him a fortune which he had 
not sought, but which came as a consequence of the 
wise expenditure of his powers. This may not be 
the common way that fortunes are made, but it is 
the best way, and much of the money made other- 
wise were better never made. 

The investment of energies should be for a last- 
ing good, an intrinsic good. Each action, each hour, 
each word, each thought bears its record 'for all 
time. It is not what that transaction puts in my 



HOW TO STUDY. 15 

pocket, but what good it does for the sum of life; 
not what praise for me that spoken word may elicit; 
but what influence it may exert through the ages; 
not what I have done merely, but also what I am 
after the doing. 

Did you solve the problem? Yes, or no, is alike 
indifferent to me; for what possible good is getting 
the ansiver aside from your encouragement? But 
did you study it well? Did you examine it in all its 
bearings? Did you concentrate the mind's powers, 
and are you stronger for the effort? Yes or no to 
that is the answer that interests me. 

During school life the expenditure of energy is 
largely for growth. It is not to get something done 
for the sake of its accomplishment only. It is more 
like the exercise of the athlete than the work of the 
haymaker. You have tried to solve a difficult prob- 
lem, but failed; is the mind stronger for the effort? 
You have tried to remember the facts of history or 
science, but failed; if the effort was well made you 
may be satisfied with the real result. Be assured 
the virtue of the energies you have expended in 
healthful study resides in the fiber of your brain, 
just as the virtue of energy expended by the athlete 
resides in the fiber of the muscle. 

Ihe tvise expenditure of energy through the arm 
makes the muscles larger; through the brain makes 
the intellect stronger-, throuqh the heart, in gener- 
ous thoughts, words or deeds, makes the affections 
broader and deeper; through the moral conscious- 
ness in resisting evil and choosing good and ivor- 
shiping Divinity, makes the moral nature more 
beautiful and (e strong in a strength not its own." 

Through school life the question on each act, 
word or thought is not what you gleaned from it, 
but what you are after it. Each thought and act 
related to you is bearing its record through untold 



16 HOW TO STUDY. 

years. Close your external eyes and open mem- 
ory's eye upon the perspective of your past life. 
What thoughts and deeds line the path you have 
passed over? Those are all your own children^ 
the offspring of your mind and hand, your energies 
embodied in action. Many of them you are not 
proud of; some you blush at. Still others stand out 
noble, generous, brave, beautiful. These seem to 
redeem the perspective of your life. They increase 
self-esteem and encourage you to the peformance of 
kindred deeds. 

Thus you see the result r er/ act is cumula- 

tive, and makes one stronger orrweaker to perform 
subsequent acts. The virtue of every drop of energy 
expended resides in the organ of mind, heart or body 
through which it passes, and influences future kind- 
red actions. 

The accumulation of this virtue is termed force 
of character. You see it is based primarily upon the 
manner and avenue through which your energies 
are expended. You expend it in thought to beget an 
act; you "sow an act and beget a habit; you sow a 
habit and beget a character; sow a character and 
beget a destiny." 

You see then that the force of one's life depends 
Upon the cumulative force of former thoughts and 
deeds. You can't be what you would in strength of 
intellect, generosity of heart, or beauty of morals, 
by a desperate effort in a day. Strength and good- 
ness grow from day to day like the growth of a tree, 
and the harder and better the wood the more imper- 
ceptible the growth. You should not try to become 
a great man in a day or at all, but to perform well 
each little action that makes up your life, and you 
will become great though you may never find it out. 

Each act is the stone and mortar of your charac- 
ter, and the energy expended shapes your edifice. 



HOW TO STUDY. 17 

Many have to begin the foundation down deep and 
the poorer the natural soil the deeper and slower 
they must go. You haven't patience to do it? Then 
expect to put up with a poor structure. Is life too 
secluded while laying the foundation? You will be 
abundantly compensated for it by notoriety when 
you get up. "If a man plant himself upon his in- 
stincts and there abide, the huge world will come 
round to him. Patience, patience! with the shades 
of all the great and good for company and for solace 
the perspective of yo^r own infinite life." 

In addition tr/sP i -^ength of character right ex- 
penditure of energy will also give beauty of action. 
Every voluntary movement of the body is an index 
of the thought that gives it birth. Were mind and 
body perfect mediums for energy to pass through 
from its source divine, every action would be natur- 
al and graceful and the record of each in the per- 
spective of your life would be embossed in beauty. 
. Then would no service be menial, no calling ig- 
noble. Then would the blacksmith hear in the 
anvil's ring only the melodious words of his happy 
wife and prattling child, and see in the glowing 
sparks of the forge the pictures and faces of a happy 
home. When the energies that move his arm are 
incited by a noble purpose the hammer rings in mu- 
sic, and gives off sparks of beauty. 

Then would be seen the nobility and beauty in 
every calling and every act of life. 

Then would be realized the poetical side of life 
pictured by Emerson, when: 

"You cannot wave your staff in air 
s : Or dip your paddle in the lake, 
: i But it carves the bow of beauty there 

And the ripples in rhymes your oar forsake." 



18 HOW TO STUDY. 

V. 
A HABIT OF THOROUGHNESS. 

"Be thorough." Doesn't that sound a little trite? 
You have probably heard that injunction before. 
Yet all do not understand even as common a state- 
ment as that. Some good, faithful students, with a 
view to being thorough, load themselves up with 
brush in order to carry away a few nuts or spend 
their time threshing old straw lest a grain of wheat 
be left. 

You have perhaps heard the story of the boy who 
set out to gather hazelnuts so thoroughly that he cut 
brush and all and carried it away so as to make 
sure of all the nuts? There are many such unwisely 
thorough students. In "nutting" many patches are 
found that scarcely pay the picking. These we are to 
walk through quickly, picking off what we can get 
as we pass along until we can find "good patches.'' 
Here we travel very slowly, while our hands work 
quickly. Were we to run through these patches as 
we did through those others, we would prove poor 
"nutters." 

Books differ like nut patches. Some are heavily 
laden with meats on es^ery page and every line; 
others have "good patches" here and there and are 
to be "walked through quickly" till one comes to 
these patches; still others have no "good spots" and 
must be passed over quickly or not at all. 

By being thorough, we do not mean that you shall 
spend your time cutting brush or threshing old 
straw, but that you shall acquire the habit of hunt- 
ing for nuts and wheat, secure a facility of getting 
through brush and straw fast or slowly, as their 
fruitfulness may warrant. 

In the practical sense, "be thorough," means get 
the kernel. Acquire a keen scent for it, and, having 



HOW TO STUDY. 19 

got on its track, pursue it as Carlyle did his fact 
"like a sleuth hound following his prey." If you 
acquire this habit in reading, you will instinctively 
run through the brush of books to the meat of your 
subject, and in writing you will cut short your pref- 
aces, prune your paragraphs, and cut the curls off 
your long-haired sentences, unless you design them 
for dolls, or prefer sound to sense; in talking you 
will walk up to your subject and hit it square in the 
eye without any parley as to your record as a pre- 
viously peaceable citizen or the provocation of your 
attack; in asking a question people will know just 
what information you want, and in answering one, 
your thought will be couched in words so few and 
fitting that there will be no mistaking your mean- 
ing. Practical thoroughness does not mean to read 
all that might be read, or say all that might be said. 
Our friend Emerson puts it well when he says: "Hug 
your fact." 

VI. 

THOROUGHNESS IN SCHOOL WORK. 

When we take up the study of each branch sep- 
arately later, we will refer to this subject again. 
Let us make a few applications here in passing. 

Did you ever think what thorough study really 
is? Practically speaking it differs on different sub- 
jects. What is thorough enough on one topic for 
all practical purposes falls far short on other topics 
and vice versa. For example take the study of 
arithmetic. We have in view three objects: the 
development of the reasoning powers or mind growth ; 
the learning of the principles of arithmetic or the 
science: the acquisition of tools to the science or 
certain tables, rules, etc. 

Practical thoroughness for mind growth requires 
that we fully understand each step passed over. It 



20 HOW TO STUDY. 

counts for little in mind growth if we work problems 
by rules or formulas. We study thoroughly when 
we understand the reasons for each step. 

In securing the second object, a knowledge of the 
science, practical thoroughness means more than 
to merely understand the operations. We must be 
able to grasp the principles and be able to apply them 
ourselves in all transactions through life where they 
are applicable. Here to be able to understand is not 
thoroughness. We must be able to apply, — to fit 
means to ends — to make up problems and apply the 
principles of arithmetic in their solution. 

But in accomplishing the third object, the acqui- 
sition of "tools to the science," more than a clear un- 
derstanding is needed. Here we must acquire facility^ 
and adeptness in the use of these rules, principles, 
etc. There may not be much mental growth in it, 
but thoroughness here is to acquire facility in the 
use of a tool as a means to an end. 

For example, a thorough knowledge of the tables 
means more than understanding that six sevens are 
forty-two, or being able to find out that it is so. 
One must have the adept use of that as a tool. 

My students working problems at the blackboard 
sometimes reported their inability to solve them. 
On asking what the trouble was, it often proved to 
be only the forgetting of some table, as the number 
of links in a chain, or cubic inches in a gallon, or the 
relation of the diameter to the circumference. Why 
my child, that is not inability! If you have forgot- 
ten your tool, or if it is dull, go get it, and sharpen it, 
and do your work. Get your book and find your 
tool. 

Practical thoroughness in this matter requires 
that certain of these tools which you use much, be 
carried in your head and kept bright. 

But which of these must you carry thus? Only 



HOW TO STUDY. 21 j 

-these you use often. Can't you remember the ell u 
English and ell French, and feet in a fathom, or the 
Connecticut rule for computing interest? Neither 
can I, nor do I care to unless I have occasion to use 
these tools often enough to keep them bright by act- 
ual use, without being compelled to bring them out 
occasionally for special dress parade. 

WHAT 13 "HARD WORK?" 

Hard work means one thing to one person, and 
quite a different thing to another. It is like the 
plowing of different farmers; one plows three inches 
deep and thinks he is doing very well by his ground, 
while another goes down five inches and then thinks 
he must sub-soil before he has done his ground 
justice. 

One pupil skims over a lesson, and this being as 
good as he ever has done imagines that he has really 
worked quite hard. At recitation he finds that other 
pupils know so much more about the lesson than he, 
that he at once attributes it to their superior natural 
ability and his dullness. 

The facts may be the exact reverse. That pupil's 
habit of study was such that he would only consider 
the lesson read over where this one deemed it fin- 
ished. The one thinks he is working hard, when 
the other knows that he has not got down to thor- 
ough work at all yet. 

If a fair idea of what genuine hard ivork for each 
pupil is could be once clearly formed, it would be of 
great value. Of course, the amount done will vary 
with different pupils; but if each had a fair standard 
of the capacity of his powers, it would help him. 
One imagines he is working very hard. But by some 
good chance he is brought into contact with a student 
who really does work hard, and he is stimulated to 
greater effort. In a few months he finds that he 



22 HOW TO STUDY. 

had never before known what hard work is, that his 
measure of it was a very short one, and that his 
power to work is much greater than he would be- 
fore have believed. He has now formed a habit of 
working so much harder than formerly, that he looks 
back on those days with a smile of pity for his 
former notions. His harder work may consist in 
the thoroughness of his study, the depth of his 
thought, the amount canvassed or the greater num- 
ber of hours devoted — any one of these or all of 
them. 

Now he succeeds where before he failed. He 
does not think that he is working any harder now 
than he imagined he was then; his measuring stick 
for hard work is so much longer that it takes much 
more to reach his idea of ordinary industry. 

It is of great importance that students secure for 
themselves an honest criterion by which to measure 
their efforts. Make up your mind that the work you 
are doing is not hard work at all, that you have not 
begun to reach the limit of your powers, that you 
have never sub-soiled your ground. Set to work and 
go deeper into yourself, double your capacity and 
keep the pressure on until you have actually formed 
a new habit— made a new standard. 

When I see a student of strong, healthy body and 
good mind neither of which has ever been fairly 
tested, giving up a problem or dropping a study as 
too difficult before he has even fairly tested his pow- 
ers, I often think of that general who hoisted the 
white flag and surrendered a superior force of sol- 
diers eager for a commander to lead them to battle, 
to a handful of half starved Canadians and Indians. 
Did you ever think that the same grit and courage 
that solves a problem in the school leads an army 
triumphant to victory in the field ? Did you know 
that it is exactly the same stuff that solves the prob- 



HOW TO STUDY. 23 

lems of life ? Did you know that the measuring stick 
for hard work that you make for yourself in school 
will be likely to go with you through life ? If it be 
a good long one, what others call hard work will be 
but pastime for you and when they will fail you will 
succeed. 

Much of success and failure in school and in life 
depends on our standard of what constitutes hard 
ivork 



34 HOW TO STUDY. 



READING AND SPELLING. 

What is meant by "studying a reading lesson"? 
Many pupils seem to think it is reading the lesson 
over one or more times; and in many schools, this is 
about all the study of a reading lesson means. When 
the pupil can call words at sight quite readily, he 
often thinks that he is ready for promotion, and it is 
not unusual to find pupils in the Fifth Eeader who 
ought to be in the Third. It is not an easy matter 
to convince them that they belong to a lower class. 
Their standard of what a reading lesson should be is 
very poor. 

In order to show the proper steps in preparing a 
reading lesson, let us first analyze one and see what 
points we must note. First we must know the words 
in a lesson. We must also know the sense, or 
thought set forth. We will therefore divide the 
preparation of a reading lesson into 

1st Word Study. 

2nd Thought Development. 

Then first when we take up our reading lesson we 
begin the word study. This may be divided into 
three steps. Spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. 
Before we can read a lesson well we must be 
acquainted with all the words in it. When we go 
to the recitation, there must not be a strange word 
in the lesson. To become thus familiar with all the 
words we must know their spelling, pronunciation, 
and meaning. This study will of course be only on 
the new and unfamiliar words. 

To learn to spell a word it is only necessary to 
direct the attention closely to the syllables and letters 
that compose it. Poor spelling often comes from 



HOW TO STUDY. 25 

not noticing words carefully. There is probably no 
better way to make sure of the spelling of a word 
than to write it out. Glance at the word quickly so 
that you can pronounce it, and then withdraw the 
eyes from it and write it out. Then compare it with 
the print and see if the letters correspond exactly. 
If you have it wrong, write it out two or three times 
correctly. You will probably always know after- 
ward how to spell that word. 

While we are learning the spelling of a word we 
also learn its pronunciation and meaning. To do 
this we must often consult the Dictionary. 

If you were a pupil of mine, I should want you 
to have a Webster's academic dictionary on your 
desk beside your reader. You would use it fifty 
times where you would not go and get the Una- 
bridged once. Occasionally it would be necessary 
to consult the Unabridged, but usually the smaller 
one would be found sufficient. 

The habit of frequently consulting the Dictionary 
is of so much importance that; I want to emphasize 
it here. If you are in the Third, Fourth or Fifth 
Reader be sure to have a dictionary constantly on 
your desk, and consult it often If this book leads 
students to form this habit, it will have subserved 
a good purpose if it does no other good. 

We have now mastered the spelling and pronun- 
ciation of a word. Next we must know its mean- 
ing. 

By reference to the dictionary we find three or 
four meanings given. Like all other words, it has 
different meanings in different sentences. Let us 
learn to use it properly in three or four different sen- 
tences, showing its different shades of meaning, and 
we can pass this word as thoroughly learned. 

We are now through with the first part of the 
work of preparing a reading lesson. If you have 



26 HOW TO STUDY. 

done this work well in the First Reader, there will 
not be so much to do in the Second Reader. If you 
have done the work well in the Second Reader, it 
will be easier in the Third and so on. But if your 
habit has been to slip along and slight this work, 
until you have passed into the advanced classes, you 
will find it difficult to do thorough work for some 
time. 

But don't become discouraged! There are really 
not many new words to be learned. In a short time 
you will be surprised to find how often the words 
you have learned come up again and again in your 
lesson, and how few the new and difficult words in 
each lesson are becoming. When lessons are poorly 
studied, the same difficult words may come up week 
after week, and each time be strangers, whereas if 
learned thoroughly at first they would be old friends 
whenever they appeared again. If the spelling and 
meaning of words are learned in the way suggested, 
the work will doubtless be thorough. 

But a few words more must be said in regard to 
pronunciation of new words. To knoiv the correct 
pronunciation is not enough. It is one thing to 
know how to pronounce, and another to be able to 
pronounce easily and fluently. While a word is yet 
new, one is likely to halt and stammer, and stumble 
over it. Hence the necessity of pronouncing each 
new word many times until the tongue, lips and 
teeth become accustomed to the positions and mo- 
tions necessary to give it utterance. 

Knowing pronunciation is one thing; doing it 
quite another. Pronounce each new word till it goes 
easily and fluently. Not before will it be an old 
friend. 

So far we have only spoken of the mechanical 
part of the preparation of a reading lesson. The 
second part, thought development, is the most im- 



HOW TO STUDY. 27 

portant. Have you an idea that two pupils get the 
same thought from a lesson? They seldom do. They 
read the same sentences; but one pupil understands 
more of the words than the other and the meaning 
of the author is fuller and clearer. One pupil may 
have sufficient general information so as to form a 
correct mental picture of things, places or situations 
described; while another may have a vague and in- 
definite idea or an entirely erroneous one. We will 
examine into this in the next topic. 

THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT. 

The second step in the study of a reading lesson 
is to fully comprehend and glean the thought of the 
author. The printed page is cold and lifeless. The 
words and sentences spoken mechanically may con- 
vey but a small part of the author's thought and 
feelings. Your words may be correctly pronounced,, 
your utterances may be fluent, even your pauses and 
inflection may be faultless, and still your reading 
be mechanical, soulless and lifeless. 

Good reading conveys to the listener the thought 
and feeling of the author in such a way as to stimu- 
late thought and feeling in the listener. But in or- 
der to do this, the reader must be full of the author's 
thought and feelings. It is not enough to know 
what the lesson contains; the student who wishes to 
make his reading interesting must become imbued 
with the thought the author desires to convey. 

To do this he must read the lesson carefully and 
understand each word and sentence. When he has 
read a paragraph, let him close his outward eye and 
open understanding's eye upon the thought conveyed 
by the sentence or paragraph. As he thinks thus 
upon it, he may find it growing in meaning. Field 
after field opens up as he makes various applications 
of the truth set forth. A sentence, at first but mere 



28 HOW TO STUDY. 

empty words soon becomes so full of meaning that 
it appeals not only to our intellect but also our feel- 
ings and we fain would commit them to memory in 
order to preserve the full thought in its entirety. 
Then we may be said to be imbued with the author's 
thought and when we read that paragraph to others 
we naturally make an effort to convey to them all 
that fullness of meaning that the words have for 
us. 

Our reading then is no longer mechanical. Our 
listeners catch the spirit back of the words and are 
interested. If in addition the reader's voice is 
smooth and the words are fluent, the listener is 
charmed. 

If the subject is not an abstract one, we must, in 
order to fully understand the author, do more than 
turn the point over in our mind. If of a historical 
nature, we must read up outside the lesson and en- 
large our knowledge of points merely mentioned by 
the author. In this way only can some lessons be 
fully understood. 

When we read for information, it is the subject 
and all pertaining to it that interests us, and so we 
follow its various lines of thought from book to book, 
dwelling in each history, or dictionary or encyclo- 
pedia as long as we find information pertaining to 
our subject. If our subject carries us along into 
various books for many pages, what matter? We 
care not what book we read, so that we can get more 
light on the topic we are pursuing. 

Here comes in the necessity for general and sup- 
plementary reading in the school. Our readers serve 
us as guides or as a basis for our work in reading 
But we are not tied to them, nor limited to their di- 
mensions. When birds in the nests get wings that 
bear them up from limb to limb, they are not long in 
disco veriDg that the freedom of the forest is theirs 



HOW TO STUDY. 29 

as soon as their wings are strong enough to bear 
them from tree to tree. - 

Not less free are all the fields of literature to our 
young people; and though nominally in the Third 
Reader or Fourth Reader at school, they may learn 
far more in their general reading at home, if their 
interest leads them on from book to book. 

SILENT READING. 

Much that we have said about studying reading 
pertains to oral reading, or reading aloud. The 
larger and more important part of our reading is 
done silently. 

One may be a good silent reader, but a poor oral 
reader. A good voice, clear articulation, etc., has 
much to do with pleasing oral reading. One who 
does good silent reading is usually an effective and 
forceful oral reader, though not necessary a pleas- 
ing one. 

Whether much or little attention should be given 
to oral reading-, one thing is certain, we should all 
give much attention to our method of silent read- 
ing. 

Two points we must take into account here, 
are : — Thoroughness and Rapidity. There are but 
few thorough readers. The average mind goes 
about so deep in all books, no matter what the depth 
of the book itself may be. Their scope of reading 
may be large and varied. It is not an uncommon 
thing to find people who have covered large fields of 
reading ; but only here and there do we find a per- 
son who has sifted what he has read. 

We have already mentioned two methods that 
lead to thoroughness ; in the case of abstract sub- 
jects, to think each sentence or paragraph over 
carefully before reading further; in the case of 



30 HOW TO STUDY. 

historical and descriptive topics to read up the sub- 
ject in auxiliary books. We should emphasize the 
former more. 

One sentence may be enough for an hour's 
thought. Follow it out in all its bearings. Discuss 
it pro and con. Think out a composition on it. 
Then when all is familiar ground, continue the 
reading. The next sentence may require another 
half hour's thought, or it may be several minutes 
before you come to another paragraph that contains 
unfamiliar fields. In the average book you will find 
pages enough of familiar thought to enable you to 
get on quickly. But when a book is found that is 
full of meat, go slowly. One sentence an hour may 
be plenty to read. Then think. Enlarge upon it. 
Use it as a topic for discussion and see what fields 
it leads you into. 

You may find this slow reading; but better to read 
a few books this way than many books superficially. 
The best part of a book is the thought it awakens in 
you, not the thought of the author. The best result 
of your reading is your own mind growth, your 
power to think things through. It is not the facts 
3^ou learn from books that benefit you most; not what 
you absorb; not the impressions made upon your 
mind; but the power generated by taking these facts, 
data, and impressions up and digesting them into 
mental data entirely your own. And this you can't 
do reclining in your rocking chair, with faculties half 
asleep, or absent mindedly reading one thing and 
thinking of another. To make data your own, you 
must focus the faculties upon the subject, until like 
the focus of the sun's rays upon glass, they fuse it. 
Then the thought is yours. The facts have been 
fused into your mental fabric and though memory 
may forget names and dates, the virtue of the 
xhought will never depart from you. 



HOW TO STUDY. 31 

We have spoken of the importance of auxiliary 
reading on topics in order to fully comprehend the 
subject. In connection with this we should not for- 
get the part that imagination plays in enabling us 
to understand the author. This is especially true of 
descriptions of places we have never seen, or of his- 
torical readings of manners and customs of olden 
times. 

We cannot fully understand even a plain state- 
ment of fact about a people if we are not acquainted 
with the manners and customs unless we can imag- 
ine truthfully what manners and customs, and con- 
ditions then existed. Many things that seem odd, 
senseless, or absurd in Roman and in Grecian times 
can be understood only in the light and spirit of 
those days. And to get into that light and spirit, it 
may be necessary to imagine many of our modern 
inventions taken away, or the size of our country 
diminished, or the form of our government changed, 
or a different climate, etc., etc.. before we can put 
ourselves, to any extent, in the place of our author. 

Then you must try to make vivid pictures of 
what you read. Make all live and breathe again in 
imagination. Create the conditions that existed. 

Until you can do this you will often find ashes 
where you sought living fire, and shells where you 
expected meat. 

SYSTEM IN READING. 

You visit a large city with a view to trading, 
visiting, seeing what there is to see, and getting an 
intelligent idea of the city. Starting without a plan 
you follow your fancy. 

Every shop window you pass does its best to at- 
tract your attention; colors appeal to the eye, fruits 
and meats to the taste, garments of various kind 
and color ask to be tried on, and hats and bonnets 



32 HOW TO STUkY. 

to no end beg you to take them off the rack and give 
them a home on your head; toys and curious novel- 
ties delight the eyes of children, and appeal to the 
heart and purse of parents. From the great mer- 
chants to the street fakirs and beggars a million 
hands stretch forth soliciting your attention, your 
patronage, your time and your purse. 

A week goes by, and day after day has been frit- 
tered away among the million hands while little or 
nothing is accomplished. 

This will never do, you finally conclude. You 
have not time to see all, nor money to buy all. One 
week still remains, however, so you make up your 
list of purchases to fit your purse, and lay out your 
program to fit your time, and starting out you work 
to your plans. The million hands grab at you again, 
but your plans protect you from all but those you 
want. At the close of the week you have accom- 
plished just what you set out to do. 

The picture is not overdrawn for the country 
more than the city. The same condition of things 
exists everywhere if we only knew it. In every 
walk of life, each day and each hour a million invis- 
ible hands stretch out to grasp our attention, our 
time and our thoughts. If we are not protected by 
a plan, our hours and days are torn to shreds and 
scattered like withered leaves in our track. 

You expect to do much general reading this year. 
The thought in a general way takes possession of 
you. Immediately you set off to buy some book, or 
get one from the public library. At the first op- 
portunity you draw up your easy chair to the center 
table, and with mind all aglow with anticipation 
of pleasure from this particular book and profit 
from all the books you are going to read this year, 
you open to chapter one and set out. 

If you happen to have a bust of Bacon or any 



HOW TO STUDY. 33 

other philosopher in your room, look up before you 
begin, and see if you can't imagine that you see 
mingled with the lines of thought that mark the 
features, a smile of pity. He like any other philos- 
opher, knows from the way you set out, that your 
enthusiasm is of the hour only; that you will never 
realize your dream of the year's reading; that you 
will not be at all likely to wade through that solid 
book, which has chanced to fall into your hands. 
But unless you become the philosopher's disciple, 
you will not see his smile; and if you do so become, 
he will have no occasion to smile; so, in either case, 
you will not see it. The philosopher has his smiles 
and tears alone. 

A few days will doubtless disclose the reason 
for this smile. The first evening several chapters 
were read. The second the novelty began to wear 
off, and the book really required thought to read it 
intelligently. The third evening a "party," or a 
caller took up the reading hour, and then it was 
too late to read, and the fourth evening you about 
concluded that this was not the book you supposed 
it to be; so the fifth, sixth and seventh evenings 
went by, a prey to the million unseen hands that 
are always extended to those without occupation or 
purpose. 

The impulse and enthusiasm for general reading 
for the year vanished like a dream, and silently set- 
tled upon the foot-prints of your path with other 
withered leaves and buds of kindred impulses. But 
some young people say they are waiting for oppor- 
tunity — waiting for favorable conditions — waiting 
for something that is not now. 

Again your philosopher smiles sadly, for he sees 
your illusion and knows full well that your favor- 
able time will never come, — that if you cannot see 
your opportunity now you never will see it. 

3 



34 HOW TO STUDY. 

Among the hundreds of pupils who pass daily 
over the thresholds of home and school, about equally 
equipped with mental armor, only one here and 
there is found who has the steeled clasps of will and 
habit that hold his armor immovable in its place. 
Only one here and there whose eye is keen enough to 
pierce through the cloud and mist on which youth's 
rainbow of enthusiasm is projected to the sun beyond; 
only one here and there who can willingly and joy- 
fully submit to the painful rubbing that keeps the 
metal of his character, not merely bright with the 
innocence of youth, but refulgent with the burnished 
splendor of virtue tried. Only a few who drinking 
in the pure air of morning, know that the most brac- 
ing breezes from northern climes had to pass through 
snow and ice to become laden with the mingled per- 
fume and freshness of hemlock and glacier. Only 
those few can view with joy the bleeding gash of 
their own pride and selfishness, knowing that from 
the wounds spring forth, in time, the lily of love 
and the olive of peace. 

Think as we will, that sometime, somehow we 
will become well read; will find more time for read- 
ing; will wake up and find the apple of knowledge 
in our grasp; the facts of cause and effect still stare 
us in the face with a stern No, and we must turn our 
eyes away from them if we insist upon indulging in 
day dreams. There is but one way for ordinary 
people to accomplish much, and that is by hard work 
and persistent effort well directed. 

If you think you would like to do some reading 
each day don't go off half cocked into space in 
whatever direction your face happens to be turned. 
Consider well your intention. Go at it methodically. 
Of the million books you would like to read, select 
ihe few you need most now and that you can rea- 
sonably hope to complete. Having mapped out your 



HOW TO STUDY. 35 

course of reading, set apart the time you expect to 
devote to it each day or each Tuesday, or each 
Wednesday and Saturday or whatever time seems 
best. That time is henceforward sacred to that 
work. 

Now the battle has only begun. If you expect to 
find yourself free to sit down to your reading at the 
appointed time without effort on your part, you will 
be sadly disappointed. Each day some of the mill- 
ion hands will be grabbing at that time. People and 
things will so crave your attention that you will 
hardly be able to put them aside and get away to 
your work. You will find after a while that all these 
claims are more apparent than real and when you 
have shown them your decision and will once, they 
all acquiesce for the time; and when your study 
hours become habitual, all the claimants finally de- 
sist and concede to you your hours for study. 

The hardest of the battle is during the first week 
or first month. When the habit is once formed,, 
people and things seem to recognize it and accom- 
modate themselves to it. 

Having overcome outside hindrances, you will 
find much yet in yourself to overcome. Inclination, 
propensity, desires in their various forms and direc- 
tions must be subordinated to the will. Worst of all 
there may be a habit of laziness, a certain inertia or 
habit of inactivity to overcome. You will wish you 
were working hard but know you are not. All the 
clay in your body seems to pull away from the work; 
the mind wanders to almost anything but the sub- 
ject of study. 

Two methods will help you out in such cases. 
One is to turn the thumbscrew of your will down 
upon your faculties and hold them to the subject. 
Another is to make an effort to enliven your subject 
with interest as you would in trying to make others 



36 HOW TO STUDY. 

interested in it; as in reading aloud and discussing 
the points. 

The latter is the true way to study successfully. 
There is but little gained by studying if you can't 
get up an interest. Interest is the soul, the life of 
study. Without it the faculties are not wide awake, 
not active, and impressions made are but partial and 
fleeting, not clear cut and indelible. Deep interest 
annihilates time. It envelopes one like sleep. In 
its fullness we are unconscious of surroundings and 
drink in page after page with thoroughness, ease and 
avidity. While without it, we strive to whip our- 
selves along, crawling now where then we flew, and 
doing indifferently what before we did thoroughly. 
About as well try to weld cold iron as to read 
thoroughly without interest. 

You must learn to invoke the power of interest, 
if you would be a student. With it you'll soar with 
ease ; without, you'll painfully plod in vain. 

THE SELECTION OF BOOKS TO READ. 

One of the difficult things for pupils to do is to 
decide upon a book to read. They can advise with 
teachers, and friends of good judgment, and have a 
number of good books recommended, but they must 
choose for themselves. 

Some will get much out of one book, others 
seem to be better interested and instructed in an- 
other. Each should gradually learn to decide for 
himself as to what good a book does him. We offer a 
suggestion, however. Note carefully the effect the 
book has on you. Two books may be equally in- 
teresting, but one may appeal to the higher impulses, 
thoughts and motives, and the other to those of a 
lower order. The romance or story of books may be 
equally enticing, but this is usually the poorest part 
to the reading. The author has made the story sim- 



HOW TO STUDY. 3? 

ply to interest you and lead you to read on so that 
he might impart his thoughts. 

If the book is a good one, you will find these 
thoughts dropped along here and there like gold dust, 
and you may pass over many of them without notic- 
ing them. 

But authors usually weave their best thoughts 
into the web of their books, so that they will have 
some effect on the reader. Therefore we say notice 
the effect the reading produces on you. Does it ele- 
vate? Good. Does it merely tickle your curiosity to 
know how "it turned out?" Bad. Does it get some 
good person in the hands of some villain and appeal 
to your indignation and your sympathy while you 
are led on over pages of improbable happenings be- 
fore you are permitted to see your hero safe and 
happy? If your book has not taught you mean- 
while some practical lesson for life, or awakened 
pure thoughts, or stimulated noble actions and ap- 
pealed to high motives, your time is worse than 
wasted. 

Different authors have different aims in writing 
their books. One weaves in descriptions of places, 
countries, people, etc.; another, the facts of natural 
or physical science; a third the philosophy of life, 
and so on. 

One wants to show up how mean a thing is selfish- 
ness, avarice, etc., and how grand are generosity 
and benevolence. So he imagines two persons pos- 
sessed of these attributes in large degrees, and by 
portraying naturally what each would do under or- 
dinary conditions of life, he appeals to our disap- 
proval of the one and our love for the other. If 
these imaginary characters do not pass through life 
and act as we know such persons usually do act, we 
say the book is unnatural and hence of no real use. 

We repeat, each must decide what effect a book 



38 HOW TO STUDY. 

has on him, and pronounce judgment accordingly. 
The book I like so well may not be of interest or 
utility to you. Why? Because you and I may 
differ in age, in maturity of thought, in experiences 
of life, in make-up of character. Also the book 
whose influence you need most, I may not need at 
all and vice versa. 

Hence, we say, choose your book and see to it 
that it is interesting and profitable to you, 
and that it has a good effect on you. If you 
suspect that you may be just a little too selfish, read 
Martin Chuzzlewit; if avaricious, Our Mutual 
Friend; if you are given to display, and think more 
of position and power and pomp conferred by money 
than of doing good to humanity, loving and being 
loved of those at home, and happy in the humbler 
walks of life, read Dombey and Son. These books 
will, of course, teach you many other lessons while 
reading them. They are better adapted to advanced 
pupils. We give below a list of books to select from, 
taken from a list recomme4ded by State Supt. D. L. 
Kiehle. All are good, but get the one that interests 
and fits you. 

Boohs of Reference . — 

Unabridged Dictionary 

Charnplin's Encyclopedia, 2 vols 

Common Things ., 

Persons and Places 

Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary 

Books for Younger Pupils.— 

Stories Told to a Child Ingelow 

The Children's Book ' Scudder 

Little People of Asia „ Miller 

Child's Book of Nature Hooker 

Stories of American History .Dodge 

Hans Brinker... Dodge 

Golden Book of Choice Beading Swinton 

Easy Steps for Little Feet Swinton 

Books of Tales in Prose and Poetry Swinton 

Little Folk's Life . Gail Hamilton 

Little Pussy Willow Stowe 

EachandAll Andrews 



HOW TO STUDY. 39 

Kose and the Ring Thackeray 

Boys of Other Countries Taylor 

Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe Yonge 

Fairy Books Mrs. Craik 

Six Popular Tales Scudder 

Stories From Famous Ballads .Grace Greenwood 

Who "Were the First Builders ? 1 Published by 

Who Were the First Architects? !' Imxri „ o 

Who Were the First Paper Makers ........' '"'.'" L 1 * ■ Ntlson & bon8 « 

Who Were the First Weavers ? \ LonJon 

Who Were the Fir3t Miners? „ V.V.J and New York. 

Little Susie's Six Teachers Coolidge 

Alice in Wonderland. 

Nine Little Goslings , Coolidge 

Lucy Books, 6 vcls Abbott 

Bodley Books Abbott 

Books For Older Puinls. 

Zigzag Journeys in Classic Lands Butterworth 

Zigzag Journeys in Orient „ Butterworth 

Boysof'61 Coffin 

Building of the Nation Coffin 

Old Times in the Colonies. Coffin 

Two Years Before the Mast Dana 

Stories of Adventure Told by Adventurers Hale 

Stories of Discoveries Told by Discoverers „ . „ Hale 

Ten Times One is Ten Hale 

How To Do It „ .,. Hale 

Book of American Explorers „ Higginson 

Geographical Reader „ Johonnot 

Boy Travelers in the Far East— 

1. In China and Japan Knox 

2. In Siam and Java Knox 

3. In Ceylon and India Knox 

The Boy's Froissart (Chronicles of Places, CTistoms and People of 

Western Europe During the Middle Ages) Lanier 

From the Log Cabin to the White House, Life of James A. Garfield Thayer 

Youth's History of tbe Rebellion, 4 vols Thayer 

Sir Francis Drake Towle 

Magellan Towle 

Marco Polo Towle 

Pizarro Towle 

Raleigh Towle 

Vasco de Gama Towle 

Cast Away in the Cold Hayes 

Christmas Stories Dickens 

Tales of a Grandfather Scott 

Young Folk's Plutarch Kaufman 

Child's History of England Dickens 

Little Men Alcott 

The Sketch Book Irving 

Stories of Greek History Yonge 

Histories and Light Science Abbott 

Pocahontas Eggleston 



40 HOW TO STUDY. 

Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan 

Swinton's General History 

Barnes' General History 

Green's Shorter History of the English People 

Prescott's Mexico (3 vols.), Peru (2 vols.) 

Young Folk's History of the United States Higginson 

Boys of 76 C. C. Coffin 

Good Old Times E. Kellogg 

Paul and Persis 

Irving's Columbus, 2 vols 

Irving's Washington, 1 vol 

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography 

Longfellow, Household Edition 

Whittier Household Edition 

Lowell Household Edition 

Dickens : David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby , Oliver Twist, 

Uncle Tom's Cabin 

Tom Brown at Kugby 

Bobinson Crusoe 

^sop's Fables 

Swiss Family Bobinson 

Anderson's Fairy Tales 

Little Women Alcott 

Bollo Books, 14 vols J. Abbott 

Eggleston's Hoosier Schoolmaster 

Leatherstocking Tales, 5 vols Cooper 

Faith Gartney's Girlhood Whitney 

A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life 

Hawthorne: Tanglewood Tales, Wonderbook. Grandfather's Chair. 

3 vols, in one 

Manual of Commerce Browne 

Seven Little Sisters 



HOW TO STUDY. 41 



LANGUAGE AND GKAMMAR 

Many pupils study English Grammar indiffer- 
ently. They " don't like Grammar." Few realize 
exactly why they study it and see little or no use 
for it. They learn the definitions all right and can 
readily tell you that "English Grammar is the 
Science of the English Language, and teaches us how 
to write and speak correctly." But the fact is, 
it seldom teaches anyone " how to write and speak 
correctly." iviany people break the laws of Gram- 
mar without correction during the very recitation in 
which they repeat and discuss these laws. 

The trouble is, many pupils learn Grammar as a 
thing apart from Language. Their time is given to 
parsing, declining, conjugating and learning rules 
and definitions while little or none of all this learning 
is applied to their actual speaking and writing. 

Fortunately this condition of things is improving, 
and pupils are actually studying how to talk and 
how to write in many of our schools. Pupils should 
remember this : The study of the science of lan- 
guage is one thing ; the practice of good language 
in ivriting and speaking is quite another. One 
may understand Grammar well, and yet speak and 
write poorly; or one may write and speak quite well 
and know but little of Grammar. 

The study of Grammar and its practical applica- 
tion should go together. We should make every 
lesson in reading, arithmetic and every other branch 
a practical lesson in Language. To thoroughly 
learn good language we must use it. Language 
study is really connected with every branch. When 
we study the use and meaning of words in our read- 



42 HOW TO STUDY. 

ing lesson we are studying language. When we 
construct sentences of our own to show various 
shades of meaning of new words we are studying 
language. When we train our eyes to grasp words 
and sentences quickly, and our tongue and other 
organs of articulation to speak these words fluently 
we are receiving language lessons. When we state 
problems accurately and analyze them clearly we 
improve in language. When we recite well in 
Geography or History we cultivate better language. 

So we see there is no lesson in which we cannot 
improve our use of language. If we would bear this 
in mind and endeavor to make every lesson the 
occasion of improving our language how fast we 
would improve! Let us do it. 

Does it pay to study English Language? It 
seems strange that any one should ask such a 
question. And yet many can't see much in it. Let 
us see. 

What is spoken or written language for? To 
convey one's thoughts. Suppose you have an im- 
portant thought you want to impress upon others. 
You can do it best, of course, if you can command 
good language. The manner of expressing your 
thought may kill it or crown it. Your hearers 
receive it through your speech. The way you ex- 
press it may impress them f avora bly , or unfavorably 
or not at all. 

You may have a plan to submit to a meeting, one 
far better than that submitted by others; but because 
your command of language in presenting your ideas 
is poor, you have the disappointment of seeing your 
plan rejected and some other poorer one adopted, 
because it was presented by one who had a good 
command of language. The manner of stating 
things often has more weight than the things them- 
selves. It is for this reason that important cases are 



HOW TO STUDY. 43 

placed in the hands of persons whose command of 
language enables them to present their cases clearly 
and forcibly. 

But aside from special and important cases, we 
all have cases to state every day. Every thing we 
say, we desire it to have the best effect. Every 
thought we express, we wish to give it in language 
that will do it justice. No one wants his thoughts 
discounted, simply because they are not expressed 
clearly and neatly and fully and forcibly. 

Language is the arm that wields the hammer of 
thought. To do the thought justice, language should 
carry it and wield it with strength and skill. No mat- 
ter whether you are describing lands or goods to pur- 
chasers, or writing a letter, or discussing questions in 
the home, on the street, or in the assembly, your lan- 
guage must be such that it will do your thoughts jus- 
tice or they will pass for much less than they are 
really worth. Lame and crippled indeed is he who 
has not the power of expressing his thoughts properly, 
He is but half armed for the battle of life, and he may 
often have the mortification of seeing a bad cause 
triumph and a good one fail for lack of a champion 
able to do it justice. Do you want to go through life 
with one arm palsied and hung in a sling ? Then 
don't study language. Do you want to substitute a 
crutch for a leg and hobble when you ought to run? 
Then neglect language work, as "of no use" and 
4 'an impractical branch." 

But if you want the legs and arms of your mind 
fully developed, let your language culture keep pace 
with your reasoning, and your power to express 
thought in a way to do it justice, keep pace with 
your power to think. It does pay to study lan- 
guage. 



44 HOW TO STUDY. 



METHODS OF LANGUAGE CULTURE. 

Before we offer suggestions, let us emphasize one 
point : High above all rules of Grammar or Rhetoric, 
high above all the models of style and grace and 
finish, high above tricks of alliteration or music of 
rounded periods, hold one law sacred to your 
thought — that your honest effort shall be to express 
truthfully, clearly, and forcibly, just what you want 
your hearers and readers to get. Do not permit any 
rules, or any desire for display to detract from this. 
Plain and homely though your speech may seem, 
that end must be served first. If a desire for finish 
or display and so on comes in the way of that, knock 
it. Hug your fact and speak your thought. The 
style that fits your thought must be your own. Ad- 
dison, Irving and McCauley may suggest, but not 
substitute. When you have fully learned this, most 
rules and laws will fall in line as if of their own 
accord. 

In the primary grades of Language study, most of 
our work will be done in . connection with other 
branches; we have shown how this is in the study of 
reading and other branches. 

We repeat here: You should make it a habit to 
use every lesson as a means to improve your lan- 
guage. Use complete sentences. Say in full sen- 
tences just what you want to say. Don't think that 
you must answer yes and no. Some pupils, in re- 
citing, start out and say a few words, and then look 
helplessly at their teacher, imploring her to come to 
the rescue and help them out lest they fall. 

Many do not realize that the best part of the reci- 
tation is the drill in reciting it; and if the teacher 
does most of the talking the pupil gets little benefit 
from it. 

To-morrow when you go to school make an effort 



HOW TO STUDY. 45 

to say in complete clear sentences all that you have 
to say. It will be an effort at first doubtless; but 
you will gradually form a good habit of speech and 
then you will look back on your pieces and bits of 
sentences, and chopped up indefinite language, and 
wonder how you could have used such language with- 
out noticing it. 

When you explain a problem, let your explana- 
tion be full, clear and concise. This will, of course, 
add to your percentage in Arithmetic; but best of 
all it will soon bring you into a habit of clear think- 
ing and clear speaking. If you feel inclined to break 
sentences off short, and leave half or more to be 
understood, think of what we have said here and 
give the sentences full and complete. 

If you find words that you do not pronounce dis- 
tinctly, take time and say them over again, until you 
speak them clearly and fluently. 

You will say that would be making a drill exer- 
cise of each recitation. So be it. You are there for 
that purpose. Whenever you find yourself mumb- 
ling over difficult words, make repeated efforts until 
you speak those words correctly. Your teacher will 
give you time and help. Teachers will appreciate 
your every effort to improve yourself. 

Much that we have said so far, is in regard to 
clear articulation and fluent pronunciation of words, 
and the use of full and complete sentences. But 
more than this is necessary if we would improve our 
language at each recitation. We must learn to 
make clear, logical statements containing two or 
more sentences. Examples of this kind will come 
up daily in the explanation of problems you have 
solved. You want to state or read your problem, 
and then beginning at the first step carry your hear- 
ers step by step through the reasoning until your 
solution is proved. To do this, it will be necessary 



46 HOW TO STUDY. 

to keep your thoughts ahead of your tongue far 
enough to guide it. You will often take a moment 
to think what part naturally comes first, and what 
part you wish to lay before the mind of your listen- 
ers, so that they will easily follow you. 

This language drill which compels pupils to stand 
on their feet before people and develops self posses- 
sion, by compelling thought and making them for- 
getful of surroundings, forgetful of all but the matter 
in hand, the mind being concentrated on the subject, 
and the thought running ahead in advance of the 
tongue to plan and systematize the expression before 
giving it utterance — this is one of the best drills in 
language that the school offers, and one of the most 
profitable that pupils can engage in. 

Let such a plan be adopted by each pupil in recit- 
ing lessons in History, Arithmetic, Geography and 
all branches studied, and the benefits will be inesti- 
mable. 

WRITTEN LANGUAGE WORK IN CONNEC- 
TION WITH OTHER STUDIES. 

What we have said in regard to language work 
in connection with other studies pertains to oral 
work. This is bat one half the drill of this kind 
needed and but the smaller half. 

Every pupil who would properly improve must 
devote much time to written drills in Language. 
In the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Readers, pupils will 
find it interesting and profitable, after thoroughly 
studying their lessons, to take a pencil and scratch 
book and write up the substance of the lesson in 
their own language. The teacher will doubtless look 
over these compositions, and give suggestions and 
corrections. Aside from the value of constructing 
sentences, the effort of the mind to recall, re-create, 
and re-clothe the thought in words will be of great 



HOW TO STUDY. 47 

value. This will make the mind stronger by com- 
pelling thought, and making the mind digest its data 
and impressions. 

The same exercise should be used after studying 
a lesson in History, Geography or Physiology. Close 
the book and write up the substance of the lesson in 
your own language. Pupils will find this more 
profitable* in learning the branch itself than the 
average oral recitation. In fact, those who can't go 
to school at all can improve quite well at home, if 
they will follow this plan. 

Let me repeat it for emphasis : Do more ivriting. 
In this way re-produce more what you have read. 
The great lack in the schools is that of re-production 
of mental data and mental impressions. Reading 
and listening make impressions on the mind and 
give it crude data, mere mental lumber. Re-produc- 
ing this orally or in writing in your own language 
compels mental digestion, and makes the matter 
your own. If half the time that pupils now give to 
getting mental data and vague impressions were 
devoted to the healthful re-production of this data, 
we would have fewer moping students, fewer dull 
plodders with confused ideas of many things, and no 
certain knowledge of anything; fewer book cripples 
with books for crutches, unable to walk at all if you 
take their crutches away; fewer book suckers who 
have no ideas of their own and who can't realize 
that a thing is so because the reason makes it so 
unless some booh says so; and more original, bright, 
active, vigorous, healthful minds that digest all 
their mental impressions and build up the nutriment 
into mental tissue and mental power. 

These may not carry around with them so much 
mental lumber, or so many unsystematized facts, but 
as our friend Emerson puts it, they will have "the 
fire that dissolves all facts." Give me, every time, 



48 HOW TO STUDY. 

boys and girls that are strong in the power of con- 
scious strength, physical, mental and moral, those 
who have subsoiled the lower strata of themselves 
and tasted the inspiration of independence through 
the consciousness of the latent power that in them 
lies, and I will give more for their chances of suc- 
cess in life, though they are yet in the rudiments of 
each branch, than for that of students who have 
stamped upon their minds facts from all the fields of 
literature and destroyed their power of generaliza- 
tion and originality in the process. 

LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR AS SEPARATE 
STUDIES. 

So far we have discussed the study of language 
in connection with other branches. It will probably 
be pursued in that way for the first five years of 
school life. When you can read well in the Third 
Reader your teacher will doubtless have you get 
some book on Elementary Language work, such as 
Powell's "How to Talk," or later, "How to Write." 

Whatever book you study, do not neglect your 
writing drill. This work in composition should be 
kept up throughout your whole course in school. 
When you take up the study of Language or Gram- 
mar in a book, you will soon learn many rules and 
laws, so that you can recite them readily. 

But remember that learning to recite them is 
only a small part of the work. If you get benefit 
from them you must apply them daily in composi- 
tion oral and written. No matter whether you are 
a Third Eeader pupil, learning the forms of pro- 
nouns, the agreement of verbs with subjects, etc., 
or a Fifth Reader pupil learning Elementary Rheto- 
ric; what you learn each day must be actually ap- 
plied in oral or written composition if you expect 
benefit from it. If you don't thus apply it you will 



HOW TO STUDY. 49 

find much of it useless lumber, only committed and 
recited and tossed into the garret of your mind with 
other rubbish. Have we said enough about the im- 
portance of applying what you learn, and practicing 
composition daily ? Then do it. 

A few suggestions now on the book lessons. Dur- 
ing the first year you will learn largely about words. 
You will have to deal almost wholly with them. 
You are now a shop carpenter doing the preparatory 
work for a fine building. Do you know anything 
about carpenter work ? If so, you know they do 
much of the work preparatory for a building in 
their shops. 

Step into one, just before a building is begun and 
you will find boards of various shapes, sizes and 
lengths; frame-work, casing, studding, etc., all 
planed, and beveled, and grooved, and mortised and 
laid in piles of each kind ready to be fitted together 
to make a perfect whole. As you look from pile to 
pile, and from piece to piece, you think it would be 
a difficult task to know all about these pieces, to call 
them by name and be able to fit them in place. But 
if you learn the carpenter's trade, you will see it is 
really very simple, after all. What appeared to be 
so many things are all reduced to a few principles. 

The first year in English Grammar you will be 
in the shop learning about words of various form 
and shape — as to how they are called and how fitted 
together properly in building sentences, and how the 
change in the form of one as subject makes it neces- 
sary for you to change the form of another. 

If you look upon this work rightly and become 
interested in it, you will find it great fun. You pick 
up the words, the boy, and the word runs, to put 
them together and make a sentence of them. They 
fit all right and read: "The boy runs." You want to 
change the form of one word now to express more 

4 



50 HOW TO STUDY. 

boys than one and you find your sentence reads: 
"The boys runs." This does not sound right so you 
change the wrong form of runs to run. Then you 
have "The boys run." 

Here we discovered a law of language. In your 
own words you would probably state that law : "A 
change in the number of the subject causes a change 
in the verb." That is correctly stated. But your 
book states it: "A verb must agree with its subject 
in number." Both statements mean the same thing. 
If, instead of using the word boy for a subject, you 
use James, you see the verb runs fits it all right. 
But now use I instead of James and it reads "I 
runs." 

Here again we find a change must be made and so 
we learn another law of Grammar, that the verb 
agrees with its subject in more ways than one. 
When the subject is the person or thing speaking 
the verb takes a different form from what it does 
when the person is spoken of. So you conclude that 
the verb agrees with its subject in person and num. 
ber. 

Now we might experiment with words all day 
and we would not find the verb changing its form 
for any other change in the subject but these two. 
You say then : I know all about that law now. I 
could repeat it well enough before but did not know 
all about it as now. I can make up a sentence that 
expresses that law myself: "A change in the per- 
son or number of the subject may require a change 
in the form of the predicate verb." 

And so we go on fitting words together and noting 
their changes to fit in sentences, and when we tell 
about those changes, we give the so-called rules and 
laws of Grammar. But in doing this we learned the 
reason for the rule before we learned the rule itself. 
How much easier it is to remember ! The thought 



HOW TO STUDY. 51 

sticks to us all right and recalls the words necessary 
to express it; whereas, if we had learned the words 
and tried to remember them in order to recall the 
thought, how difficult it would be ! And so we go 
on fitting words together in various sentences to ex- 
press different ideas and we find them changing in 
form. We have only two kinds of words that we 
can use as subjects of our sentences, and the teacher 
says these are called nouns, or something used for 
nouns called pro-nouns; and only three kinds of 
words for the predicate which the teacher says are 
verbs and something partaking of the nature of 
verbs— a sort of grandfather verbs, called partici- 
ples and infinitives. But we see those participles 
and infinitives can't go it alone and make a com- 
plete predicate, as the pronouns can, iu the subject. 
We find by experimenting that these participles and 
infinitives never make a complete predicate without 
a verb to help them out. When we examine the 
verb farther we will find that these grandfather 
verbs, called participles and infinitives, are really 
only changes in the form of the verb itself, and the 
gray hairs of the participle written can't disguise 
from our eyes that it came from the boy-verb ivrite. 
Going back to our subject, noun or pronoun, we 
find, after hitching them up in different sentences to 
express ever so many ideas, that they make four 
changes. By examining these changes we find them 
to express person, gender (or sex) number and case. 
And these the teacher says are called their il prop- 
erty '." So each seems to have four properties. We 
now return to the verb to see if it possesses any 
"property." By drilling it in different sentences we 
find it changes about in only three ways, one 
of which the teacher calls voice, another mood, and 
a third tense or time. It is reasonable to suppose 
that a verb with the right time would have a nice 



52 HOW TO STUDY. 

voice in the right mood. When we drill verbs about 
to try their voices and moods and tenses, the teacher 
calls it conjugating them. 

As the carpenter selects out of all the pieces in 
his shop the frame work for his house, we select out 
of two kinds of words for the frame work for our 
sentence called the subject and predicate. We have 
found that the subject is a noun or pronoun and the 
predicate a verb. Now we have the frame work of 
the sentence. All we put on to it hereafter will be 
to complete or modify the sentence, just as the car- 
penter puts on siding, plastering, shingles and paint 
to complete and modify his house. 

If we examine houses, we find that all are not 
built smoothly and well. Just so it is with sen- 
tences, all are not well built. We should be familiar 
with the parts we tuck on the frame work in order 
to fit them on well. We go back to our word-shop 
now and get some modifiers. In the frame work of 
the sentence are only three kinds of words or parts 
of speech as we have seen — nouns or pronouns and 
verbs. Taking our sentence boys run, we modify the 
noun with the word large and the predicate with 
fast, and the sentence reads: Large boys run fast. 
We see that large modifies boys and fast modifies 
runs so we call them modifiers. But one modifies 
a noun and the other a verb, and so the teacher 
tells us we must call the first an adjective and the 
second an adverb, just because one modifies a noun 
and the other a verb. 

Do you think that is a good reason? Well, I 
don't, and I would be just as well satisfied if there 
was no such distinction. We then would call both 
modifiers and tell what each modified and be done 
with them. 

But the books give them special names, so I sup- 
pose you must learn what these names mean. You 



HOW TO STUDY. 53 

see the names are based on what the word modifies. 
If it modifies a noun or pronoun you call it an ad- 
jective modifier, but if it modifies anything else you 
call it an adverbial modifier. I am sorry this is 
necessary, but so it is. If the same word modifies a 
noun in one place and a verb in another, it has to 
change its name. Take fast in this sentence : "This 
is a fast horse;" then fast is an adjective because it 
modifies a noun. But "This horse runs fast;" here 
poor fast has to change its name to an adverb be- 
cause it modifies a verb. Too bad! is it not, to have 
to change one's name for so little a thing as that? 
But I suppose it can't be helped. 

Now, we have nouns, pronouns, verbs and ad- 
jectives. Let us modify our sentence again. Large 
boys run fast— the play ground. That sentence does 
not seem good. It needs something. It is like two 
loose pieces of the carpenter's frame-work. A piece 
of some kind is needed to fasten play ground to run. 

Go to the work shop and get a pin-word. I see 
three or four there that will do all right, on, over, to 
-and by. Stick one of them in and pin play ground to 
run. Now it reads, "Large boys run fast on the 
play ground." Now we need a name for those pin- 
words. The books call them prepositions. You see 
what they are used for. They pin a noun to another 
word, or as the books say "show relation of a noun 
to some other word." Get another word here. I 
want to use the word girls in the sentence, "Large 
boys — girls run." What is wanted? And. What 
for? To join boys and girls, of course. So we would 
call it Sijoin-ivord. The books call it a conjunction, 
which means the same as join-word. Now we may 
build as many sentences as we like, we will find 
hardly a word that may not go by the name of some 
of those we have named already, — noun, pronoun, 
verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction. 



54 HOW TO STUDY. 

If you get frightened or sad or glad you may say 
ouch! or, ah! or, pooh! or some such word to express 
your joy, or grief, or anger, and so on. Any word 
used for such an outbreak is a sort of wild horse that 
won't be harnessed into a sentence. So we call all 
such fellows interjections, and that is all we have to 
do with them. Other words have properties, such as 
person, gender and number, or voice, mood and tense, 
and have to be fitted in with case and comparison 
and so on; but these interjections have nothing but 
a name. That tells all about them. They are simply 
bits or chips thrown out by our. feelings when they 
explode in joy, sorrow, anger, contempt and so on. 
So these words you do not use to build sentences. 
We give them a name and leave them loose. 

In the books you will find three little words called 
articles, the, a, an; but you need not call them so un- 
less you want to. Call them modifiers simply. You 
will find they usually fit on to nouns and pronouns 
only, so you will call them adjectives, I suppose. 

By building sentences we have found eight parts 
of speech called nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, 
adjectives, conjunctions, and interjections. After 
getting well acquainted with nouns and pronouns, 
we find they have person, number, gender and case, 
and verbs have voice, mood and tense, and most ad- 
jectives and adverbs have comparison; prepositions 
have power to show relation, and conjunctions to 
join. When we have told this much in regard to 
every word of a sentence we have parsed it. Now 
all this will be found very easy work indeed if we 
go at it right. The secret of success in this work is 
to keep your mind on the important point and that 
is, Learn the meaning and use of each word in the 
sentence. If you know that, you know all the im- 
portant part. 

Can't you tell what part of speech to call a cer- 



HOW TO STUDY. 55 

tain word? Well, I don't care what you call it, you 
have told me what it means, what its use is, what it 
modifies— that is the important part. Seek first the 
use of words and all other things will come of them- 
selves. 

We have passed briefly over the parts of speech, 
their properties and construction— or what is usu- 
ally gone through in parsing. Usually too much 
time is spent on this work. You spend weeks on 
learning the principal parts of verbs and how to 
conjugate them, how to form the plural and the pos- 
sessive case of irregular words, and much other 
work of that sort that would take care of itself, if 
left to swing in line at the proper time. Do you ask 
when that is? It is when you need to use such 
things. 

Learn to use good English. Learn to express 
your thoughts clearly, fully, forcibly, concisely. 
Write page after page of composition, as suggested 
heretofore. In doing that, you will have to use as 
occasion requires, the different parts of each verb, 
in different modes and tenses; you will have to form 
the plural and possessives of various words; you will 
have to get pronouns in the right case ; in short 
you will have to hunt up words and examine them 
closely for a purpose, namely, to clearly express 
your thoughts. In doing this you have only to 
notice the forms words take on to fit your ideas, 
and you will thus learn all this "parsing business" 
Tense, mood, voice, case, gender, person, number, 
and so on, will pass in review before you as you try 
to construct words into good sentences to convey 
your thought clearly, fully and forcibly. In this 
way you will soon learn parsing, declining, and 
conjugating, etc. Begin at the right end of the 
skein and the yarn will unwind easily. Begin at 
the wrong end and it will hitch and snarl all ways. 



56 HOW TO STUDY. 

ADVANCED WORK IN LANGUAGE. 

Oral and written language work has been dis- 
cussed and recommended as the best means of lan- 
guage culture. It should precede grammar, parsing 
and all that. In fact your grammar work will easily 
fall in incidentally. I do not depreciate the work of 
grammar so called; but I wish to impress on your 
mind the importance of practicing good language, 
oral and written, as the best means of improving in 
this branch. 

Keep before you the purpose of your language 
work, namely, to express thought well in oral or 
written language. Bend every effort in this direc- 
tion. Learn the powers of words of various kinds 
to convey your thought. Write compositions that 
will utilize and systematize all your knowledge of 
history, physiology, geography, etc. ; write composi- 
tions that will compel you to put in shape your ideas 
of practical topics of every day life, such as self- 
control, the best economy of time, the economy of 
spending money and the economy of saving it ; the 
duties we owe to parents, friends, neighbors, the 
church, the community as citizens; the uprooting 
of selfishness, the cultivation of kindness, love, 
truth, honesty, integrity, nobility, etc. Topics of 
this kind that you know something about and are 
interested in, will be far better for you than those 
you know nothing about. See to it 'that you stick 
to your subject. Don't wander off or lug in words 
to fill up. Stick to your subject if you only write a 
page. 

This work has many advantages. It cultivates 
language, compels thought, conduces to mind 
growth, clears up your ideas on practical life, sys- 
tematizes your knowledge gained from history, 
geography and other studies. It is by far the best 



i 



HOW TO STUDY. 57 

work of the schools. There is nothing like it to make 
clear cut, well defined thinkers. 

In doing this work you have the essence of lan- 
guage study. As y6u advance in the power to think 
and the ability to express your thoughts, you will 
learn how to divide and sub-divide your topic, so as 
to lay your thought clearly before your readers and 
gradually build up to a conclusion. Your effort will 
be throughout to convey your thought clearly, and 
in its entirety. To do this you will begin with the 
foundation, and with an eye to strength, complete- 
ness and beauty, like a mechanic building a house, 
you will seek to complete your topic. Do this and 
then get some book on Rhetoric and you will find 
that in your effort to properly express your thoughts, 
you have observed dozens of rhetorical rules, which 
it would have taken you days to commit; and even 
then you would not havps understood them till you 
had this experience in writing. 

But now while many of those rules and laws are 
suggestive and helpful, most of them fall in line as 
a matter of course. We learn here again that the 
lumber of the Rhetoric like that of the Grammar, 
which is designed to help, only hinders if it is not 
made to follow in its proper place. A simple rule 
runs through all Language work from beginning to 
end: "Aim to express your thoughts clearly, con- 
cisely, fully, forcibly, elegantly." Write, read, criti- 
cise and re-write until your thoughts are thus ex- 
pressed; that is all there is in it. 

In your effort to do this you will gradually learn 
to practice all the rules and laws of Rhetoric, 
though you may never know how to recite them 
like a parrot. 



58 HOW TO STUDY. 



HOW TO STUDY GEOGKAPHY. 

Pupils spend too much time in vain on this branch. 
If all the superfluous matter were sifted out of the 
average school Geography, it would be a very small 
book. The names of thousands of islands are given, 
and in many schools pupils try to commit them. 

What good do they do you ? You never use them. 
About all you know of them is their names and loca- 
tion, and even these you have to bring out on dress 
parade occasionally, to keep them bright. And to 
what purpose? Simply to know them. But if occa- 
sion arises so that you really become interested in 
one of them, if a friend goes there, or if something 
else happens to make you interested in it, you find 
your vague knowledge of little use. You immediate- 
ly set to work to look it up. This you do with real 
interest and after that you know something about 
it. The same may be said of committing names of 
capes, rivers, mountains, lakes, unimportant cities, 
and much other data of this kind that you care 
nothing about and will soon forget. When you re- 
member the almost infinite number of names, bound- 
aries, statistics, etc. , that might be learned in Geogra- 
phv, you will readily see that it is useless to attempt 
all 

The question then naturally comes to the clear, 
systematic student, what will I undertake to learn? 
It would be useless to attempt to point out what you 
should learn, for that cannot be done. But I can 
give you two rules by which each person can deter- 
mine for himself. Learn what is of interest to you. 
Learn what you need to use. 

These are pretty good rules to govern you in 
selecting and rejecting matter in Geography. If 



HOW TO STUDY. 59 

you are really interested in knowing or finding out 
anything it will be likely to stay with you If you 
need to use any information in Geography such as 
a place you are reading about, or a journey you are 
expecting to take you will be interested in it In 
such cases you will want specific information and 
you will go into details. 

But in the general study of GeograDhy you will 
not be interested in minutiae or matters of detail ; 
therefore according to the rule given, you won't care 
to spend time learning them. I knew a teacher 
once who felt quite ashamed because she did not 
know which was the highest mountain in the world, 
and another equally so because she was not sure 
which was the longest river. It would seem to me 
greater ignorance not to know the number of town- 
ships, the general surface, the rivers and kind of 
soil in one's own county. 

Begin learning about the geography of your farm, 
your neighborhood, your township, your county, and 
your state, before you feel that you must commit 
names of mountains, rivers, capes, and statistics of 
cities and areas of territory in foreign lands. 

What do I care which mountain is the highest, 
or which river the longest ? I have in my mind a 
picture of the large rivers and high mountains of 
my own and foreign countries. I know how they 
look as nearly as it is possible for one to know with- 
out seeing them. What more do I want ? I don't 
care about a few miles, or a few feet here 
or there. Should I go to congress and have a 
project for canals, drainage, or commerce connected 
with these rivers or mountains, I would then be in- 
terested in details, and I would then learn as much 
in one reading about these matters of detail as I 
would now by hours of painful study and indifferent 
reviewing. 



60 HOW TO STUDY. 

Do you see the point ? If you can't awaken an 
interest in your mind so as to make vivid mental 
pictures, and clear conceptions of countries, cities, 
people, productions and industries, it is useless to 
commit empty words and names, and delude your- 
self with the notion that you are getting a knowl- 
edge of this branch. Words, definitions and names 
are not knowledge, any more than husks are corn or 
chaff is wheat. 

TAKE A SURVEY OF WHAT MAY BE 
LEARNED. 

We have been speaking about what not to do. 
Assuming that you are cautioned against routine, 
chintzbug study, (chintzbugs, you know, stick head 
and eyes into the root of a stalk of wheat, unmindful 
of the rolling acres about them,) and that you will 
not attempt to carry away the Rocky Mountains in 
order to get the gold in them, we may take a survey 
of the work to be done, the part we most need, and 
the part that may interest us to learn about and use. 
As we look into our mind to see what we are going 
to study, we see the whole world laid out before us 
an immense ball in space, the surface of which is 
land and water. On one side we see two large 
pieces of land called North America and South 
America. Rolling the ball around we find on the 
other side Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The 
pieces of water between, we see are called the five 
Oceans. All this we learn in the Primary Grade. 
Now this includes the scope of our geographical 
study unless we go outside of the ball itself. 

Have you the picture clear in mind? There is the 
world a great ball in space whirling around the sun. 
Now what could we learn about it? Each pupil can 
tell before he opens a geography. First we could 
learn about those pieces of land and water. When 



HOW TO STUDY. 61 

we have learned the names of the great oceans, that 
is about all we have to learn of the water just now. 
So we confine our attention to the land. 

We find that divided into five or six large pieces 
called continents, then into smaller pieces called 
countries, and states. When we know these in a 
general way, we notice the surface of the land is 
marked by mountains, rivers and lakes. 

By turning the ball around a few times, we pretty 
easily get a mental picture of these, and gradually 
learn the names of the larger ones. We then turn 
the ball around and learn the zones of heat and cold, 
and this leads us to inquire about the vegetable and 
animal growth of each zone. As man is one of the 
animal kind we naturally inquire about him as well 
as the other families of animals, and we learn of the 
peoples of the human animals. We are interested 
to know in a general way how those people live, 
what they do, etc , so we learn of productions, cities, 
and governments. 

All this time we have chosen our own topics and 
gotten information where we could. We have paid 
no attention to the divisions and definitions of the 
book. 

If we turn to it now, we would be likely to find 
that we have learned, in a short time, all that it con- 
tains in many pages, only we don't know so many 
names and definitions according to the book. We 
have instead, however, mental pictures and ideas, 
and we can easily get names, and make up defini- 
tions. The fact is we have begun at the right end 
and what would have been dry, laborious study 
through the regular routine lesson, has been full of 
interest and full of ideas. We have been stimulat- 
ing our thought and appeasing it as we went along. 
If we found things we did not care about know- 
ing, we passed them over till the time came when we 



62 HOW TO STUDY. 

would care. After this jaunt, we can take up our 
book and learn lesson after lesson with ease in so 
far as we care about it. 

ADVANCED WORK IN GEOGRAPHY. 

So far we have a general idea of the surface of 
the earth. In mind, we can see the chains of moun- 
tains, the groups and peaks, ivhere they are; we can 
give the names of most of them; we can see the great 
rivers with their branches, called river systems, 
draining the valleys; we can see the gulfs and bays 
cutting into the edges of the land here and there; 
we can see the great lakes glittering here and 
there in the middle of the land, we see a 
few great cities, and we are interested in know- 
ing why they became so large, and why they still 
grow larger; we see the different countries and have 
an idea of the kind of people that live in each, and 
how they support themselves, and conduct their 
affairs of state. This mental picture we have got- 
ten easily. It only took us a short time, and every 
step was full of interest. Does any one of my pupils 
say that his mental picture of Europe or South 
America is not clear? Then, my child, go and 
draw a map of it. Put in the map only the features — 
mountains, rivers, lakes, cities, etc.— that you con- 
sider important. Don't fill your map up with minu- 
tiae for effect. Be true to yourself. Put in it only 
what you can see is important, and while you im- 
print each feature thus honestly on your map, you 
will make a clear, indelible picture upon the mind. 
As you take up the study of each country, the first 
thing you should do is to draw an outline map of it. 
Add to this map from day to day the features that 
you learn about it. In doing this a little colored 
chalk where a certain color always represents a cer- 



HOW TO STUDY. 63 

tain thing, will add greatly to the clearness of the 
mental picture. 

Don't try to make fancy picture-maps for effect. 
The only object is to get a correct mental conception. 
Better make rude draughts and repeat them oftener 
than to spend your time on fancy work. For ex- 
ample, John and I thought we would get a good idea 
of the United States. We got us each a sheet of 
paper, 14x28, and in a short time we had the map 
bounded, and, with four faint lines drawn across it 
north and south, from four to six inches apart, as a 
guide to us in locating, we drew light boundaries of 
all the states in a very short time. Next day we 
put in the mountains and rivers. Then we located 
the principal cities; but we read up about each city 
before giving it a place on our map. We did not 
get very many cities down, but what we had, we 
were pretty familiar with. Highlands and val- 
leys we indicated by different colors; also mineral 
products, iron, lead, coal, gold, silver — each had its 
own color to designate its place on the map. 

When we finished we had a clear picture of our 
maps in our mind and could shut our eyes and see 
our maps as if they were lying before us. 

We did likewise with Europe, only we did not go 
into detail so much as with the United States. We 
can now look into our minds and see each country, 
its principal mountains, rivers, lakes and cities; 
(only the large ones); we can see what the people are 
doing in each country, how they are governed, and 
how they go to school and to church. 

As the picture passes from Europe to Asia, strange 
and interesting contrasts are noticed in the people, 
their manners, customs, employments, government, 
education and churches. We don't know as many 
names as some students, but we have mental pictures 
and ideas which afford us much pleasure. All of it 



64 HOW TO STUDY. 

was of interest to us in learning it, and seems to 
stay with us without effort. 

Many things come up in connection with geog- 
raphy that we don't know about; but we have a 
large, complete geography for reference to consult 
at such times; and we find that students who have 
spent double the time on geography that we spent, 
have to consult this reference geography as often 
as we. 



HOW TO STUDY. 65 



HOW TO STUDY HISTOKY. 

We should read History with interest. If we 
can't do it in that way we had better quit until we 
can awaken an interest. It is folly to plod through 
it. The mind must be awake not only so as to get 
all the author gives, but to imagine conditions and 
circumstances that then existed and to form living 
mental pictures. What we read we must reconcei ve 
and see in our mind. To do this, the faculties must 
be wide awake, and when we cannot keep them so 
we had better stop reading. 

We should read history as a connected whole, 
not by pieces and unrelated events. Before taking 
up a subject, it is well to first get a birdseye view of 
the whole before going into details. If the whole of 
United States History could be laid out before the 
mind in epochs until the student could see it in re- 
lief, as he would see a city from a hill top, the cor- 
relation of events would be much easier to see, and 
the study in detail would be easier and more interest- 
ing. 

Don't you know how this may be done? Simply 
by, at first, getting it in outline. The whole history 
of the United States may be given in a ten-minute 
recitation; or it may be given in twenty minutes, or 
forty minutes, or an hour, according to the amount 
of detail given. To tell the story of our country 
from beginning to end in a brief talk would lay it 
before the mind in a connected whole. This story 
may be enlarged from day to day, and the oneness or 
wholeness still retained. If this work be done by 
teachers, long before United States History is taken 
up as a study in a book, it will help pupils to study 
it intelligently and with interest. 



66 HOW TO STUDY. 

' 'Years ago our country was wild prairies and 
forests without any people except tribes of uncivil- 
ized Indians. Civilized people lived in Europe. 
They did not know of America. Christopher Col- 
umbus, who Jived in Italy, got an idea that the 
world was round and that by sailing westward he 
would reach India. He set out on the ocean and 
ran on to America, though he supposed it was India. 
Then a lot of English, French and Spaniards set out 
to explore and colonize the new country, and after 
much hardship they got several farms started in 
New York, Virginia and Florida. There was a 
Dutch lot, or colony of people in one place, French in 
another, English in another, and Spanish in another. 

At first they had some fights with the Indians; 
but afterward they got to fighting among themselves, 
because their countries in Europe were in war. Three 
or four of those colonial wars happened; but they did 
not amount to much until the English and French got 
to fighting about land. This was quite a long war, 
but England came out ahead, and so she tried from 
that time on to govern all the colonies in this coun- 
try. But the colonists did not like England's gov- 
ernment, so they all joined hands — English, Dutch 
and French combined their forces to break away 
from England's control. And they succeeded. 

They then organized a government of their own, 
and united as one people— not Dutch, not English, 
not French — but Americans, and chose their great 
General, George Washington, who had led them to 
victory in their fight for independence, as the first 
President of the United States. 

From that time on our people have grown pow- 
erful and happy. They tilled the fields, built rail- 
roads and cities, manufactured and improved ma- 
chinery, and grew in knowledge and wealth. When 
Washington's four year term expired, they elected 



HOW TO STUDY. 67 

him for four more ; then they elected a new man for 
president, and they have had a good many since as 
they elect a new one every four or eight years. 

We got into a second war with England about 
1812 for imposing on our people at sea. It was fought 
mostly at sea and did not last but a few years, when 
England concluded to let our seamen alone. Then 
in 1846 we were mean enough to fight Mexico with- 
out much cause, and got a large piece of her land. 
But these two wars were nothing compared to the one 
our own people got into over slavery. The people of 
the South had been getting negroes to do their work 
and holding them in slavery. The Northern people 
opposed this, and a desperate war of five years fol- 
lowed, from 1861 to '65, at the close of which the 
slaves were freed, and now our whole country is re- 
spectable, prosperous, happy and at peace with all 
nations." 

There is the History of the United States in one 
recitation. This may be enlarged, as much as each 
one pleases, until he has the whole in a birdseye 
view. Then, as he studies it more in detail, he will 
connect events by cause and effect and group epochs. 
Don't bother about dates until you need them. A 
few "land mark" dates you will of course need; and 
the related events if properly learned, will force other 
years to their places. There is help in this if you 
will try it. 

After we have the whole history before the mind 
in a general way, we begin the study in detail. Five 
elements will constantly enter in, and we should 
learn them and note them in every topic; cause, 
time, place, persons, effect. If these are carefully 
noted in connection with each topic, the frame work 
will be well defined. 

Throughout this study we must form mental pic- 
tures of the countries, the peoples, the conditions, 



68 HOW TO STUDY. 

the lines of march and plans of campaigns in wars, 
etc. From the very first, we should begin to make 
our historical map. On this, locate the voyages of 
Columbus, of the Cabots and other explorers; locate 
the settlement of the colonies, the boundaries of ter- 
ritory claimed by the English and French and Dutch 
and Spanish ; the forts of the French and Indian 
war; the plan of campaign and the position of each 
army at the final surrender. These points once well 
in mind for the French and Indian war, will be of 
great help in the study of each succeeding war. In 
fact, if the picture of the country and the lines of 
march of the forces are well in mind all subsequent 
study will be more intelligent and easier. One map 
filled in from day to day will be sufficient for an en- 
tire epoch. On this map we make no mark unnec- 
essarily — no points are put on for show. We are 
expected to be able to tell all about each point in our 
historical map. 

In studying each war we should at first try to get 
a birdseye view of it before going into details. 

To do this it is well to read from the beginning 
to the close of it at one sitting. This has a tendency 
to throw all in relief as a whole before the mind and 
as we seek to follow the story continuously it grows 
in interest as we proceed. We do not stop to note 
time, or places or men, or numbers as we do in our 
detail study. We sail over the fields in a balloon, 
and whole campaigns pass before us in their entirety. 
For example, read over the French and Indian war. 
Then close your eyes and view your mental picture 
in its entirety. You have in mind the cause of the 
war. You see the armies meeting at Fort Necessity, 
Fort Duquesne, Lake George, Louisburg, Ticonder- 
oga, Niagara and Quebec. Your map has made a 
clear picture on your mind and the story of each 



HOW TO STUDY. 69 

point is soon told. The entire French and Indian 
war may be told in one recitation. 

Here again we emphasize the importance of a 
birdseye view of a topic or campaign as a whole. 

But a war is only a period of history. Other peri- 
ods, we learn in the same manner as wholes. During 
each peace period, many important events mark the 
progress and growth of our country which may be 
passed in review as wholes before the mind, just like 
wars or campaigns. In this way we get mental pic- 
tures, or birdseye views of our country's history in 
periods and epochs. Beginning with the voyages of 
Columbus, we give the mental canvas a turn and the 
whole epoch of discovery and exploration with its 
Cabots, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Magellan, DeSoto, 
Melendez, Raleigh, Hudson, etc., pass before us. 
We see the men, the ship's course through the ocean 
and along the coast, and the tracks of exploring 
parties inland. 

We give the canvas another turn, and we see 
various groups of colonists trying to make settle- 
ment here and there in the wild country with failure 
and success. In connection with all these pictures 
of our history, we have to keep an eye on the condi- 
tion of European people to fully understand our 
own. 

After this period of Discovery and Exploration is 
well in mind, we give the canvas another turn to 
the period of Colonization. The picture of the Epoch 
before us represents nearly one hundred and seventy - 
five years of Colonization. Look on your mental 
picture. There is Virginia Colony at the mouth of 
the James, in the midst of a wilderness. Hardship, 
famine, charters, government from Kings, and dicta- 
tion from leaders, Indian massacres, Bacon's rebel- 
lion and internal feuds, all the history of this colony 
pass before the mind in a few minutes. Next the eye 



70 HOW TO STUDY. 

catches Massachusetts, with its Pilgrim Fathers 
and much of the same struggles that the Virginia 
colony passed through. In quick succession come 
the other colonies. Many of them founded for relig- 
ious freedom from English oppression, some for free- 
dom from exacting English laws of debt. Roger 
Williams and Rhode Island, Hooker and Connecti- 
cut, Henry Hudson, New York and the Dutch, Lord 
Baltimore Maryland and the Catholics, Oglethorpe 
Georgia and the debtors —all pass before us bearing 
each its history. If we think of these as so many 
neighborhoods far apart, and in mind pass quickly 
from one to the other, comparing them as to aims 
and purposes, we will soon have a vivid mental pic- 
ture — a sort of birdseye view of the whole. 

In this way you see the subject as a whole — and 
seeing it so, you note how it brings out the contrast 
of struggles for religious freedom, and persecution of 
Quakers; Salem Witchcraft, and protestant and cath- 
olic dissentions. As yet, you see a lot of separate 
communities gradually organizing into a lot of states, 
and finally linked together by the French and In- 
dian war, and welded by the American Revolution. 
Having once gotten this frame work or picture as a 
whole, we can add to it from time to time with inter- 
est and ease. 



HOW TO STUDY. 71 



HOW TO STUDY ARITHMETIC. 

If your work in the primary grades has been prop- 
erly done, very little direction on method is needed 
in this branch. A few suggestions, however, may 
prove helpful. In this branch, like all others, two 
ends are in view; the development of the reasoning 
power, and the utility of the science for practical 
ends. 

The first is, of course, the more important, and 
sensible students will understand that the amount of 
concentrated thought they put forth is what pays, 
whether problems are learned or not. Those who 
realize this will not ask some one's help to do away 
with work that was designed for their mental 
growth. 

Keep before you constantly that the purpose of 
your work is to grow strong; then you will never 
want to get through a problem that you do not un- 
derstand. Don't work by rule or by formula. All 
these things take away the real benefit of the work. 
The following suggestions, carefully observed, will 
be helpful. 

1st. Read your problem carefully. Criticise the 
wording of it until you know all the inferences that 
can be taken from it. Then, if carefully working 
the problem according to one understanding of the 
statement does not win, try it according to another 
possible understanding of the reading. It often hap- 
pens that pupils do much hard work correctly, but 
in vain, simply because they have not carefully read 
the problem, and are working it according to a 
wrong understanding. It sometimes happens, also, 
that the wording of the problem is not good in that it 
may be understood in more ways than one. In such 



72 HOW TO STUDY. 

cases, pupils often do their work logically and cor- 
rectly, and not getting- the correct answer, try and 
try again to no purpose. They sometimes try ways 
they see no reason for in the hope they "may get it 
right." 

This waste of time and futile work may be avoid- 
ed by carefully reading the problem, and fully under- 
standing it, before any attempt is made at working 
it. Think deeply before you begin to make figures. 
How important this suggestion is, you may realize 
after following it. 

2nd. If any step in the work is not quite clear, 
make it the object of thought until you clear it up. 
If you are called upon in class to explain a problem 
bear in mind what is said on this subject under Lan- 
guage work. Let your thoughts be clear cut and 
compel your tongue to express them in Language 
that will do them justice. 

3rd. Let all your written work on slate or black 
board be well arranged, clear and systematic no mat- 
ter whether any one is to see it or not. Don't get into 
the habit of tossing your work together as good 
enough. If bad habits of this kind are formed during 
school life, you will never get rid of them. Let the 
work be clear and complete. You may want to "cut 
the corners" to save time, but, in the end, you will 
lose more through errors arising from unsystematic 
work than you will ever gain, and contract bad 
habits instead. 

You might as well try to save time in writing by 
dropping out words here and there, as to omit the 
signs in working a problem. They are only substi- 
tutes for so many English words. Then too, the 
comma, semi-colon, dash, period, etc., are important 
in the solution of a problem, and should never be 
omitted. The habit of making good figures does not 
receive enough attention by pupils. Simple as it may 



HOW TO STUDY. 73 

seem, it is really one of the greatest sources of mis- 
takes and annoyances in practical life. Long fives 
that look like nines, and sevens that look like ones, 
and threes that look like fives or eights, and so on, 
are fruitful sources not only of error, but also of 
lost time. 

4th. Cultivate a habit of accuracy. In practical 
life uniform accuracy in addition, subtraction, etc., 
is of the greatest importance. Some pupils re- 
gard an error in figures as of no importance, " sim- 
ply an oversight." How would it be if you were a 
cashier? "An oversight" there, and in many other 
positions would mean money lost. For this reason 
the services of clerks who are accurate in figures are 
at a premium. 

5th. Definitions if learned at all should be learned 
verbatim. You can't make up a definition im- 
promptu. You can give an idea of the thing to be 
defined; but don't think that is giving a definition. 
Definitions require exact language. 

6th. Among the many tables to be learned some 
should be thoroughly committed, and others only 
read over. Those that one uses daily should be as 
familiar as the tables of dollars, dimes and cents. 
Other tables that are not used enough to keep them 
in mind should not be committed. Ell English, 
measures at sea, " Barly corns table;" also the rules 
of foreign states for computing interest, should not 
be committed. You can consult the book if you hap- 
pen to have occasion to use these. 

One great fault with students in Arithmetic is 
their leaning upon the book for support. The work 
is laid out under headings with case and rule, etc., 
for each. By following the direction of the author 
as given in these headings, one can work the prob- 
lems almost without thought. But when the same 



74 HOW TO STDUY. 

work is given without case or rule, pupils do not feel 
so sure of their methods. To overcome this, we 
should work examples taken at random from other 
books, that illustrate the principles just passed over; 
or practice examples that come up in every day 
life. 



HOW TO STUDY. 75 



HOW TO STUDY PHYSIOLOGY. 

It is really quite easy to learn all you need to know 
of this branch for practical purposes if you study 
properly. Think with me as to what you want to 
know about it. 

I. — The construction or anatomy of the body. 

1. The bones and how they are made and 
joined. 

2. The muscles and how they are made and 
attached to the bones. 

3. The fat that is deposited here and there. 

4. The membranes that cover organs and 
cavities. 

5. The skin that covers the outside. 

6. The organs of digestion, circulation, res- 
piration. 

7. The nervous system. 

8. The parts of the eye and ear. 

II. — The actions of the organs, or physiology. 

1. How the food is prepared for renewing the 
blood. 

2. How the blood builds up the tissues and 
carries off impurities. 

3. How the blood is purified, or respiration. 

4. How the nerves control the action of the 
organs. 

III.— The way to care for health, build up good 
bodies, and keep strong. 

1. Amount and character of food. 

2. Amount and character of exercise. 

3. Prevention of disease, care in sickness, etc. 
Now you can add to this outline if you desire, 

but if you know this much of the branch you will 
not be considered ignorant. 



76 HOW TO STUDY. 

In learning what we have outlined, you can 
make it hard or easy, according to the number of 
names, etc., learned, just as in the study of Geog- 
raphy. You may spend days learning the scientific 
names of the bones, and many do. But what good 
does it do you? You will probably forget most of 
them, unless you bring them out for dress parade 
occasionally. Those names are not used in life. 
Collar bone is just as good as clavicle, and shoulder 
blade as scapula, knee-bone as patella, and finger- 
bones as phalanges. 

The important thing to know is the bones them- 
selves, how they are constructed and joined to- 
gether. The best way to do this is to carefully 
examine a skeleton, and in an hour you will actually 
know more facts from the things themselves than 
you will learn in reading about them for a week. 
The reading is all good enough, but let it be done 
with the thing before you. Almost any physician 
will give you the opportunity to examine a human 
skeleton. 

For the study of the composition of bones and 
muscles get material at the butcher shop. Don't 
bother your head, or waste your time, over names; 
you can designate things well enough if you know 
them. The knowledge itself first always; the mental 
picture first. Get at the thing, and the names will 
come as fast as needed. 

One of my pupils who had never spent much time 
in the book, after pursuing the plan suggested, re- 
cited about as follows: "The human skeleton that 
we examined yesterday contained 208 bones without 
the teeth. In the skull we found eight bones, rather 
flat and joined together as carpenters dovetail the 
ends of boxes or like this: (he interlocked his fingers); 
the one at the back of the head was very thick. 

When it was sawed in two, I noticed that the 



HOW TO STUDY. 77 

outside pieces were hard and the center spongy, and 
I suppose it would be no easy matter to break a 
skull made that way as the force of the blow would 
be lost in the spongy center. 

Right under the skull is the backbone made up 
of twenty-six odd shaped bones. The ribs, twenty- 
four in number, were joined to these at back, and the 
seven upper on each side were joined in front to the 
breast bone. 

Then came the large hip bones. There were also 
a collar bone from the neck to the shoulder in front, 
and a shoulder bone behind, to which were attached 
the three arm bones, one above and two below, fast- 
ened at the shoulder by a round head in a round hole, 
and at the elbow a joint like a hinge. At the wrist 
were eight little round and oblong bones, and below 
them five long bones forming the palm of the hand, 
then fourteen bones in the fingers." 

In like manner he told of the bones in the legs 
and feet, and of the face. You observe he gave very 
few names, but he knew all about the bones them- 
selves. 

He had studied the branch but a few days when 
he could tell you about the heart and its valves and 
walls; also the arteries and veins, and intestines. 
He had examined them for himself. After this he 
read a book on the subject easily and intelligently. 

My point is this: don't spend your time learning 
names and reciting words that don-t mean much to 
you. Learn about the organs themselves, their 
anatomy, their actions and their uses. 

In this way you will find the branch full of inter- 
est, and easily mastered in so far as you will need it. 

After you have learned the parts of the body and 
their action and functions, you will of course read 
up on the laws of health or how to take care of 
these parts. And may we hope that you will learn 



78 HOW TO STUDY. 

these laws to observe and practice them? Little 
good they will do you otherwise. The chief end 
and aim of all you study of this branch is the intel- 
ligent observance of the laws. Bad enough to have 
these laws transgressed ignorantly; still worse to 
have them broken willfully. In either case the 
transgressor suffers the penalty whether he realize 
it or not. 

The fortune, vouchsafed to each in good health 
and abundant strength, is rarely properly valued 
and often carelessly jeopardized. 



HOW TO STUDY. 79 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCES. 

In the school, we study what are called the com- 
mon branches, and because these have been selected 
as the ones necessary for us, we usually stop wit'h 
them. Did you ever ask who laid out these four or 
five branches for common schools? or why it was 
done? If not, do so. That they are of primary im- 
portance we all admit; but that we should be con- 
tent to confine ourselves to those few branches, and 
never take a look into other fields, is a question we 
should think about. All about us vegetation springs 
to life each year, clothes the earth with verdure, 
delights the eye and gladdens the heart with fresh 
and varied colorings. Trees bud and leaf, flowers 
unfold and bloom, birds build their nests, warble 
their songs, and bring forth their broods. 

Butterflies flit from flower to flower, bees hum 
their song and sip the honey, while on their feet 
they carry fruitful seeds from flower to flower. 
With the growth of myriad plants struggling for 
a place, the hum of insects and the song of birds, all 
nature is buoyant with life, visible and invisible. 

Plants, insects, birds and beasts, all have their 
families and family histories. All live according to 
laws, always beautiful and often wonderful. V\ ,,ere 
some plants are found, the botanist knows that other 
families will be represented near by, and that others 
will not be there. 

The telescope brings to us wonders from the im- 
mensity of space; the microscope reveals a field at 
our feet equally as wonderful. And why should we 
children of ten, twelve and fifteen summers, plod on 
in the limits of the common branches, deaf, dumb 
and blind to so much of nature about us? Is it be- 



80 HOW TO STUDY. 

cause the sciences have names highsounding? If 
so, it is easy to give them household names. We 
can learn about plants, insects, animals, rocks, etc. 
"Even the dullest beholder," says Prof. Gray, "the 
least observant of nature at other seasons, can in the 
spring hardly fail to ask, what are plants? How do 
they live and grow? What is the object and use of 
vegetation in general and in its particular and won- 
derfully various forms?" 

Suppose you set out each spring to get acquainted 
with one new plant or flower each week. This 
would be found a very easy matter and would soon 
lead on to greater things in this line. In a little 
while you would know the grand divisions in bot- 
any, and the leading families of each division, also 
many interesting things about the life and growth 
of plants. 

In like manner a little study and easy reading 
about animals might be done each day until their 
kingdoms, divisions, classes and families and a 
great many of the species would be familiar. 

Would it not also be interesting to collect speci- 
mens of the trees or kinds of wood that grow in your 
vicinity? Also specimens of the rock formations? 

In a few months we would no longer look upon 
vegetation as a jumbled up mass of flowers and 
weeds, but a really law-abiding lot of communities 
and families, with characteristics in some respects so 
similar to those of people that they would seem much 
more interesting and much nearer to us. 

Get some easy book on botany like Gray's 
''Plants, and how they grow" and start your plant 
collection, your wood collection, etc. 

Later you will want a similar book on animals, 
and it will not be long until you will want to go 
farther in those fields that you have barely glanced 
at. 



HOW TO STUDY. 81 

A FEW OF THE THINGS WE WOULD 
LEARN ABOUT. 

We would find that all living things are two 
classes, plants and animals. 

That in the lower orders, it is difficult to distin- 
guish the plant from the animals, so closely do these 
two great kingdoms unite. 

That plants take up nutriment from, and live 
on the earth, while animals live on plants, and hence 
plants are the link that unites the animals to the 
clod and enables them to live, indirectly, from it. 

That in each seed there is a miniature plantlet, 
which a few days in the soil will so unfold as to 
show the form of the adult plant. 

That the meats of grain, nuts, etc. , which we eat 
is the food that was stored up for the infant plant. 

That the life of some plants is one year, others 
two years, and others many years. 

That buds and leaves are regular in their arrange- 
ment, and seem to follow definite laws. 

That some plants live on the earth, others live 
entirely upon the air, while a few "sponge" their 
living off other plants. 

That families of plants are distinguished by spe- 
cial forms of leaves, roots, flowers and seeds. 

That on dissecting flowers, we find parts (style, 
stamens, pistols, anthers, ovaries, pollen) wonderful 
and beautiful. 

That all the parts of plants have some purpose 
in view, such as the strength and comfort of itself, 
its future wants, or the perpetuation of its kind. 

That amoDg plants are found male and female. 
That there are characteristics of plants that enable 
us to classify them into divisions, families, species, 
and varieties, and thus reduce the whole vegetable 
world to system, and identify, recognize, and be able 
to salute by name each plant we meet. 



82 HOW TO STUDY. 

That in all and through all are discovered laws of 
the Creator, clear, definite, wonderful, beautiful, the 
contemplation of which makes us reverently bow in 
mind and heart, if not in body, worshipfully 
acknowledging the wonders of creation of which we 
know so little, and unconsciously repeating that 
great scientist's spontaneous prayer: 

"O God, I think thy thoughts after Thee," 

or musing in Tennyson's — 

Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
Hold you here root and all in my hand, 
Little flower— but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is- 

Under this heading we have said but little of the 
fields of elementary zoology, geology and astronomy 
which every child should enter at an early date — 
while in the Third, and Fourth Reader. 

But it is only our purpose to suggest the wisdom 
and necessity of taking up all these branches in ele- 
mentary form while yet studying the common 
branches. 

Enter those fields at once, and return there often, 
if only long enough each time to be refreshed by a 
breath of their fragrance, or expanded by a glimpse 
of their boundless horizons. 

Each day learn something from nature herself. 
Books will help you some, but your eyes more. Be- 
gin to observe and you will soon begin to inquire. 
Your own observation, poor as it may be, is the best 
for you. Read your books but examine in nature 
for yourself what is discussed in your books. 

"Bring not to field or stone 

The fancies found in books, 

Leave author's eyes and fetch your own 

To brave the landscape's books." 



HOW TO STUDY. 83 



CHAKACTER BUILDING. 

"He has learned all the knowledge of the books 
and yet is meaner than when he entered school." 
Men are regarded in two capacities: for what they 
can do, and for what they are. In the former ca- 
pacity we estimate their worth, and prize them as 
we prize cattle, horses, machinery, money, power; 
in the latter we respect and love them. 

In the former, they are our lawyers, doctors, 
bankers, smiths. In the latter, our friends. What 
one has in the shape of facts, skill, talent, knowl- 
edge, money or power does not necessarily make 
him any better; what one is is eyerything. 

We have been studying Beading, Arithmetic, 
Language, etc. — sciences all very good in themselves 
and desirable to know; but now that we know them 
are ive any better men and women than before? Did 
our Grammar make us less selfish or our Arithmetic 
less mean, or our Geography less vain? Surely not. 
One may have "learned all the knowledge of the 
books and be meaner than when he entered school." 

Growth in wealth, knowledge or power is not 
necessarily a growth in goodness, love, purity or 
truth. In fact the absence of the former frequently 
conduce to the growth of the latter. 

Among our young people in school and at home, 
we need discipline and culture on a side of our na- 
ture which the regular work touches only incident- 
ally. We need a branch that will be to the moral 
powers, what Arithmetic is to the reasoning powers. 

Oh, if we could only have a science of character 
as prominent in our schools and as faithfully studied 
as the science of arithmetic! If pupils could be 
made to feel that strength of character, depth of 



84 HOW TO STUDY. 

affection, and nobility of soul, require exercise on ap- 
propriate objects just as the reason does on arith- 
metic, many an occasion for healthful exercise 
would then be embraced that is now neglected and 
lost. If parents could realize that graduation day 
does not of necessity find their children more trust- 
worthy, or more lovable than the day they entered 
college. 

True, the general influences of the school and the 
college are toward making each student better mor- 
ally; but those "general influences" are far from 
equal to the great work of character- building that 
should.be done for each student. His reasoning 
powers are not left to the development of "general 
influences;" why should his moral powers be? 

The fact is, this side of our education is neglected 
in the schools, and then we wonder why we find in 
life that the characters of men and women are made 
of such poor stuff when put to the test. 

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" said 
a friend to me. I am going to map out a course of 
instruction — reading, writing and doing — for my stu- 
dents that has for its end and aim the development 
of character, just as much as arithmetic has for its 
end the development of the reason. It will be an 

ARITHMETIC OF CHARACTER. 

Let us note some of the elements both good and 
bad that enter into each person's make-up. First — 
Truth,— bright, beaming, glorious truth; the 
basis of moral health, the foundation of all other 
elements of character, that which gives weight to 
words, force to argument, courage to the down-trod- 
den, and conviction to every one. 

Truth as an element of character has a broader 
meaning than is usually attached to it. It includes 
more than statements in words. It is at the basis of 



HOW TO STUDY. 85 

right seeing, right feeling, right thinking, right 
judging, right acting. What injustice, folly and 
wrong has been committed because the living truth 
was not perceived! 

There is probably as much lack of truth to 
one's self as there is to others. Self deception is far 
more common than opium eating. Both habits are 
practiced for false pleasure. The vail with which pride 
seeks to cover ignorance, is no less an illusion than 
the condition induced by the opium pipe. 

The clear perception of truth dissipates thous- 
ands of self-delusions and moral miasmas. It is the 
surgeon's knife to the goitres of egotism, the gard- 
ner's broom to the cobwebs of vanity, nature's sun 
to the fog of superstition. 

Truth to one's self, in thought, as well as in word 
and act, is an element of character that no one can 
afford to compromise, and that all should assiduously 
cultivate. 

When one loves truth in its broadest form he will 
also love justice and honesty. He must do so, for 
the one flows from the other. An unjust deed 
usually contains some shade of falsehood to one's 
self, or to others or to both. So does a dishonest deed. 

When one loves truth he will abstain from prej- 
udice, despise flattery, denounce injustice and side 
with the right regardless of majorities. The sacred- 
ness of his word once given will be kept with the 
royalty of truth. His word may be relied on. It 
will be a promissory note, and more, it will be a mort- 
gage on his manhood, — the word of nature's noble- 
man. 

In the tale of Virginius, when the old Roman's 
word was given and accepted for the return of the 
beautiful Virginia to the mock trial of the tyrant, 
all hope of justice being fled, some one urges escape 
by flight. But the old Roman says his word is 



86 HOW TO STUDY. 

pledged and shakes his head in a way that shows he 
could far more easily give up his life than break his 
promise. 

Would that we could give some of the accumula- 
tions of the nineteenth century in exchange for the 
integrity of a Roman promise! 

When your word is given, my boy, keep it sacred. 
Keep it though it make you squirm financially. 
Keep it though you sell your produce below the 
market price. Keep it though you go cold and 
hungry. Keep it through all forms of temptation to 
break it; for, when the trial is over then "come the 
angels to minister unto him." 

In life, it often costs to keep one's word; were it 
not so it would not be so valuable a letter of credit. 
But cost what it may, it is part of one's manhood, 
and no man has ever sold a piece of his manhood 
without getting cheated in the deal. 

In developing truth in its entirety, one will also 
develop four other elements of character: — Justice, 
Honesty, Frankness, Conscientiousness. 

As these five kindred elements pull into line in the 
effort to establish the first, we pass on to a group of 
four more elements: 

Nobleness, Boldness, Courage, Valor. 

What a grand thing it is to be a man! A noble, 
brave, courageous, independent man; not one who 
makes service menial by cringing to please, but who 
ennobles his calling whatever it be, by the excellence 
of his work and the independence of his manhood. 

It is a mistake that rendering service is ignoble. 
True nobility is independent of position. One of 
manly independence is not subject to persons; he is 
subject to the laws and customs of his calling — no 
more, no less. To the laws of position and vocation 
every one is subject. The lawyer is a servant, so is 
the doctor, the merchant, the public officer, every 



HOW TO STUDY. 87 

one. The merchant studies to please the public just 
as much as the employe does to please the. em- 
ployer, and usually more. In doing so, all people 
work in obedience to the laws of position and not 
the whim of persons. In that there is nothing 
servile. The title to the property resides in the 
owner; but the employe who performs his work 
well is as necessary to the employer as the employer 
is to him, and may have his share of manly inde- 
pendence if he does not sell it. 

Whenever one touches upon this phase of the 
subject, he is confronted with the problem of labor 
and capital. We will not enter into the discussion 
farther than to say that numerous causes contribute 
to the difficulties that arise, and numerous reforms 
are necessary to remedy them. No one thing will 
cure all. 

But among the many remedies offered, no 
one will go so far, in my judgment, as manly inde- 
pendence with all that it implies. Now, what does 
this independence mean? It means that man shall 
be able to support himself independent of others. 
How? In a very simple way : keep his expenses in- 
side his income. Save a little each day during 
health and sunshine. That is all there is to it. 

Many a common laborer on the railroad at $1.25 
per day supports a family, schools his children and, 
in time, has some money saved up. True, he must 
have his garden, his cow, and his pig. He cannot 
take care of these and spend his evenings in the 
village saloon, or on the loafer's dry goods box. He 
knows what his evenings are worth in his garden 
and about his home. His food is plain but sub- 
stantial; his clothes are coarse but durable. His 
digestion is good, his conscience clear, his sleep is 
sound. Frugality, economy, and industry have 
conspired to make this man independent; a dime is 



88 HOW TO STUDY. 

saved here and there; hope sees afar the sun of better 
days, and from it bends a ray to light up the cottage 
of the frugal poor. Such a man will command re- 
spect. He will soon gain footing to better places, 
and the schooling of his poverty will be the angel of 
his prosperity. 

There is no calling in which a man may not 
through industry and frugality maintain indepen- 
dence and in time secure a competence. 

"But my wants are too numerous for $1.25 per 
day" says one: and "mine for $2.00, and mine for 
$50 per month; mine for $1,000 per year, and mine for 
$2,000 per year/*' and so on. There is no limit to the 
growth of wants in people. One often deludes him- 
self with the idea that doubling his salary will grat- 
ify his wants and leave a margin to lay by. He soon 
finds out that wants increase much faster than in- 
come, and that the only true philosophy is to keep 
them inside the income, whatever it be. 

Labor organizations may help the laborer. If so, 
God speed them! But don't depend entirely on them. 
The plan proposed will do most for you in the end. 
Have you noted the men who go from the "bench" 
to the head of the firm? They are not men that gave 
up their time to organizations and strikes to redress 
their wrongs. They are men who were frugal and 
industrious, men who kept their expenses inside 
their income, and wisely invested their savings. 
They were men whose services were always in de- 
mand, who never had to bite the dust for any one 
because of debt or obligation; men who spent no 
money to gratify vanity, who gave no mortgages on 
the future for present pleasure; men who had the 
courage and independence to do as they pleased re- 
gardless of fashion, custom and caste. 

As boys in school, they could wear cowhide boots 
though others wore calf; they could wear clothes of 



HOW TO STUDY. 89 

texture less fine, and of cut less fashionable, than 
that of their scnoolmates ; they could do work to 
replenish their purse with an honest penny, while 
others spent spare hours in expensive pastimes; and 
best of all, they did these things — not with shame, 
not with the blush of wounded vanity — but with a 
manly independence that lent its luster to every 
act, and in time won them a reputation for strength 
and courage that challenged the respect and admi- 
ration of their more wealthy companions. 

That which makes noble, Independent men is of 
the same stuff that makes manly, independent boys. 

To work and struggle through hardships and priv- 
ations knowing in one's secret heart that these are 
angels in disguise; to bravely, nobly, joyfully fight 
life's battles as they come; to inhale like bracing air 
the inspiration of a purpose enthroned in the soul; 
and finally, in the fullness of manhood, to gradually 
emerge from creek and shoal, free and independent, 
out upon the high seas of life, with your craft, small 
but seaworthy, your iron will for a rudder to which 
it readily responds; your mature judgment for a 
compass ; your horizon of possibility broad as the 
curves of the earth; your freedom only limited by 
the shores of the ocean; what inspiration in the 
thought! What effort is it not worth! 

Truly "It is a great thing to be a man!" 
Benevolence, Love and Faith. 

Last and greatest, we must cultivate benevolence 
for humanity and love for neighbors and friends. 
Where in our path there is suffering, to them must 
go out our sympathy; where there is want, our aid ; 
where shortcoming and defect, our charity; where 
deserved success, our congratulation. 

The man of large sympathies draws people to 
him like a magnet. Through the affections all men 
are brothers. Through warmth of heart men are 



90 HOW TO STUDY. 

drawn together. A cold, sluggish nature makes few 
friends. What matter what talent, ability or wealth 
you have if you are not kind, sympathetic and lova- 
ble? People are not drawn to one for what he 
knows. If a person be cold and repulsive, his fel- 
lows will not desire intercourse with him except 
business-wise. Be the intellect what it may, the 
talent what it may, the position, wealth, power and 
all that; the character that is formed without 
healthy affections, without a warm heart for his 
fellows, without abundant sympathy for humanity, 
however perfect otherwise, is a flower without per- 
fume, a light without warmth or radiance, a struc- 
ture yet incomplete, and dedicated to ends less noble 
than the highest. 

That judgment made without sympathy is unjust; 
that criticism made without love is harsh; that pun- 
ishment inflicted without pain is cruel. 

The Eye of Reason, with all its boasted clearness, 
can never rightly adjust its lenses to a perfect view 
of human nature without affection's touch. 

Truly, "The heart hath reasons which the reason 
does not understand." 

But how to cultivate this side of our nature? 
Not by talking about it and endorsing those teach- 
ings. Demonstrations of love and professions of 
friendship and words of kindness are all good 
enough as far as they go; but words alone will not 
make the affections deep, any more than they would 
make the muscles strong. Action is required. Do 
something; give something, help some one. Who? 
Not every beggar; not every one in need; not the 
"unwise charity that bringeth forth weeds." Cer- 
tainly not. 

But perform that obligation that lies in your 
path; bear that responsibility that Providence would 
rest upon your shoulders; alleviate those sorrows 



HOW TO STUDY. 91 

that are too sacred for the public eye, and concealed 
from all other eyes but yours; help those friends, 
the secret current of whose lives have touched and 
mingled with your own. 

You need not "go out hunting" for objects of 
charity. A healthful sense of obligation will always 
perceive, close at hand, duties enough to perform. 
Only peform those duties that lie in your path, and 
help those lives that touch your own, and you will 
not want for worthy objects enough to keep your 
affections healthful and your heart glad. 

Faith, the last element of character mentioned, 
will develop in the light and warmth of love. The 
two elements are reciprocal. Distrust is a long step 
toward hatred. Faith begets love as love begets 
faith. Faith begets trustworthiness, as distrust 
begets deception. It is only half confidences that 
are broken. Human nature even in thieves revolts 
at treachery. 

He who has faith in his fellows develops trust- 
worthiness in them just as surely as love begets love. 
Appeal to the brutal in your companion and you 
develop it; appeal to the noble and you develop that. 

"Be noble, and the nobleness that lies in other men 
sleeping, though never dead, will rise in majesty to meet 
your own." 

Trust your fellows and scorn suspicion and es- 
pionage. 

Cheated, you maybe somtimes; but you will lose 
less by it in a lifetime than you will by the opposite 
course. Better to tread the highway that leads 
straight to your object than to spend your time in 
reconnoitering the alleys before making each ad- 
vance. 

In the long run suspicion is a loser. "Eaves- 
droppers never hear good of themselves, *' and ''cow- 
ards die a thousand times before their death;' 



92 HOW TO STUDY. 

"treachery is often begotten of our own distrust;" 
and "we create the dangers that we fear." 

I have touched upon those prominent elements 
of character that all should cultivate. Many others 
might be mentioned. For students who desire to 
make a study of themselves with a view to cultivat- 
ing certain elements, and retarding others, we sub- 
mit the following elements of character outlined by 
Prof. Willis. Analyze your own thoughts, feelings, 
desires and ability, with an impartial and unprej- 
udiced spirit, compare your ideas with this descrip- 
tion, and you will have a correct impression of what 
you are, and what you ought to be. The following 
temperaments form the basis of human character. 
Any power or organ may be increased by exercise 
and diminished by neglect. The perfection of man's 
entire character — religious, moral, intellectual and 
commercial, — depends upon the equality of all the 
organs and temperaments and their even and proper 
exercise. Character is partially hereditary, and 
partially developed by education. 

KNOW THYSELF. 

Knowledge is power; therefore personal know- 
ledge is personal power. Do you desire to make the 
most of yourself? Then you must know yourself 
physically and mentally. 

Would you control others? Then first conquer 
and control yourself. Are you aiming to shine in so- 
ciety? You must be wide-awake, bright, amiable 
and healthy; a knowledge of yourself will tell you 
how to attain these qualities. 

HOW TO KNOW YOURSELF. 
There are excesses and deficiencies in human 
character that are not personally observed unless 
brought to light by the aid of self-analysis. There 



HOW TO STUDY. , 93 

are many persons who generally know what busi- 
ness to follow, or in what branch of industry they 
will be most successful. 

Some are qualified for a brilliant literary career 
who are wasting their time and energy where they 
will never amount to anything; they have plenty of 
brains, but do not use them. Others, again, are 
using their brains far too much — more than their 
vitality will permit; thus hastening on to an early 
grave. They may be brilliant for a while, but lack 
power; and all their literary genius will be like the 
glory and fragrance of the rose, that endures for a 
season, and then passes away; whereas, did they 
cultivate body and mind together, they would be 
more like the solid oak, towering up in majestic 
grandeur above their fellow men. 

Thousands of men who have led reckless lives, 
and ultimately gone to ruin, might have been saved 
had their passions been subdued in youth, by proper 
culture. Sometimes passions lie dormant until the 
individual arrives almost at maturity, and then 
gradually, but surely, develop, moulding and blast- 
ing the future character; or if circumstances place 
strong temptations in the way, they may suddenly 
spring into action, and change the character that 
was apparently good and noble, into one of crime or 
ruin. 

To know wherein we are deficient and excessive 
is an imperative duty devolving upon every person 
who would make the most of himself or herself, and 
fulfill the grand object of life. 

No two persons are exactly alike, either in appear- 
ance or character. This diversity arises from the 
endless combinations of the organs of the mind and 
body. When the intellectual and moral organs have 
the ascendancy over all other organs of the system, 
it gives rise to the mental or nervous temperament. 



94 



HOW TO STUDY. 



When the vital organs of the body are the largest 
and most active they form the basis of other temper- 
aments, known as the vital and motive. 

The following chart will help students in self -an- 
alysis: 



CHART OF CHARACTER FOR SELF IMPROVE- 
MENT. 



CONDITIONS 


Sg. 1 L ^ 


Full 


Aver'ge 


Small 


Health 








1 




Vital Temperament, 
















1 


— 




Mental Temperament 




" "\" 
























Muscular andPibrous Temperam'nt 


















1 




Emotional Temperament 

Activity. 






1 ~ 




















1 


















1 










— 


























1 








1 










1 










— 










1 






— 


— 










1 








1 
i 






















1 








I 










I 


1 


















1 _ 










- 
















1 
1 


















1 

~ 1 










""l '"' 






Individuality 
















1 
1 
1 

1 






















Tune.... 




....... 






Practicality 

Subterfuge 




— 


" 1 

1 
1 





































Explanation of Markings— When an organ is marked very 



HOW TO STUDY. 95 

large it indicates that it is extremely active, very powerful, 
governs the action of smaller organs, has a controlling in- 
fluence over character and is liable to perversion. 

Any organ or condition marked large is similar to the 
above, only in a less degree. 

Full is indicative of considerable strength and power, 
yet none to spare; with cultivation will accomplish much, 
but can never become really great in character or ability. 

Average has only a medium influence; it is not a defi- 
ciency, still it has little power unless stimulated and aided 
by other faculties. 

Small means deficiency and weakness, and must be vig- 
orously cultivated to accomplish anything. 

The perpendicular marks | are used to express what the 
heading indicates. 

Horizontal marks — running across the ruled lines, mean 
between the two conditions the respective headings indicate, 

HOW TO USE THE CHART FOR SELF 
IMPROVEMENT. 

The object is to get a thorough self knowledge. 
If you are strong in one temperament and weak in 
another, you should know it so as to cultivate defi- 
cient powers and make the best use of full ones. 
Before the student can improve himself he must 
analyze and know himself. The following plan is 
suggested. 

Draw off the chart given here on a sheet of paper, 
writing in the elements that form the basis of char- 
acter, as printed in the chart at the left. Then ex- 
amine yourself as to each element, and make a mark 
in the column that indicates the degree of fullness 
of that element; if large, mark 1 in column headed 
Large; if average, mark 1 in column headed Aver- 
age; if between the two draw a horizontal line from 
one column to the other. 

First is Health; turn to the explanation of the 
chart and find what is meant by that element. 
Then mark your chart for yourself as full, or aver- 



96 HOW TO STUDY. 

age, or small, etc. Next comes Vital Temperament. 
Read under the explanation what this means, and 
then mark your standing in this element on your 
chart, and so on until you have examined yourself 
on all the elements given. 

The chart as given is filled out for one of my pu- 
pils. 

When you have filled out a chart that shows 
your faculties and powers as you regard them after 
a careful, unbiased self-examination, file your chart 
away and give a blank to your teacher and another 
to your wisest, honestest friend to fill out for you as 
they see you. Then compare these with yours and 
you will get pretty close to the truth. 

Now set to work on one or more defects of char- 
acter, and see what improvement you can bring 
about in a year, when you may have another chart 
filled out. 

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF ELEMENTS 
OF CHARACTER. 

Health.— 

Present condition of the body and mind. 

Vital Temperament. — 

This embraces the entire system of internal organs 
which create life force (the heart, lungs, stomach, liver, and 
bowels), and render persons large and fleshy. 
Motive or Bilious Temperament. — 

This temperament indicates the bones and muscles 
which constitute the frame-work of the system, gives tough- 
ness, muscular power, physical endurance, and great 
strength of character; imparts a dark complexion. 
Mental Temperament.— 

Embraces the brain and nerves. Adapted to thought, 
feeling, activity, sensation, predominance of mind over body; 
makes the scholar, poet, artist, etc. 
Sanguine Temperament. — 

Gives powerful respiration and arterial blood, great love 
of physical action, impulsiveness, ardency, warmth of 



HOW TO STUDY. 97 

attachment, and love of field sports; imparts an auburn or 
reddish color to the hair, and florid complexion. 
Lymphatic Temperament. — 

Indicates activity of the absorbents and digestive 
organs, aversion to motion and labor. Inactive mind and 
body. Laziness. 
Nervous Temperament.— 

Is similar to the mental. A person, however, may be 
nervous, sensitive to all kinds of impressions, and full of 
activity, without manifesting much intellectual power. He 
may likewise be a thinker, and possess considerable brain, 
without being nervous and irritable. 
Muscular and Fibrous Temperament. — 

Indicates large, powerful muscles, physical toughness, 
tenacity of existence, strong and steady pulse, hardness of 
flesh, and endurance of both body and mind. 
Emotional.— 

Excitability. It is the hysterical, weeping, laughing, 
hopeful, quick-tempered and scolding disposition. Intensity 
of feeling; keen susceptibilities. 
Passional Temperament.— 

This is partly a combination of other temperaments. It 
indicates large and active propensities; hot-blooded, pas- 
sionate, voluptuous; fond of sensual pleasures; inclined to 
evil habits and a wicked life. 

Activity.— 

Quickness, speed, ease of action, liveliness. A person 
having activity, combined with a mental temperament, will 
be very quick to perceive, think, feel, act and speak. 
Locomotion.— 

Love of action, desire to move about; restlessness, dis- 
like to remain in one position long, and are constantly mov- 
ing the hands, feet or head, even when seated; excel in 
walking or running a race. 
Veneration.— 

Reverence, submission, Christian charity, devotion, wor- 
ship; prayerful; respect for old age, the Deity, and every- 
thing that is sacred ; love for the souls of men, the mission- 
ary spirit. Excessive or perverted: it leads to fanaticism, 
bigotry, idolatry, religious intolerance. 
Spirituality. — 

Faith, intuition, forewarning; internal light; belief in 

7 



98 HOW TO STUDY. 

the future, perception of truth, inclination to believe general 
statements ; the prophetic faculty, that which tarings man 
in contact with the spiritual world; imparts the true spirit 
of prayer. Perverted : superstition, belief in dreams, omens 
and fortune telling; with large cautiousness and average in- 
tellect, fear of ghosts. 
Hope — 

Expectation, cheerfulness, buoyancy, joy, enterprise, 
high glee. It is the anchor of the soul, and, united with 
spirituality, makes man believe in a future existence, and, 
with the addition of vitativeness, long for and desire it. 
Perverted: builds castles in the air and runs great risk in 
business. 
Conscientiousness.— 

Justice, honesty, equity, moral principle ; love of truth; 
innate sense of accountability and obligation, regard for 
duty; sense of guilt, penitence, contrition, desire to reform; 
with approbativeness and ideality, will have a strong desire 
for moral purity; with large firmness and combativeness, 
will stick to the truth, even unto death. Perverted: will 
censure one's self for trifling things, and, with deficient ac- 
quisitiveness, will lack self -justice, and fail to collect what 
is due. 
Firmness.— 

Tenacity of will, stability, decision, perseverance, reso- 
lution, fixedness of purpose, aversion to change; with ven- 
eration, will have a disposition to retain old things, such as 
furniture, relics, buildings, monuments, time-honored usages, 
ceremonies, institutions and forms of government. Per- 
version: obstinacy, stubbornness, unwillingness to change, 
even when reason requires. 
Approbativeness.— 

Desire to be praised, love of admiration, pride of charac- 
ter; ambition, display, desire to excel; sense of honor; de- 
sire and love to appear to the best advantage ; with ideality, 
will love dress and fashion; with only average perceptive 
faculties, will drink in flattery like water. Perverted : van- 
ity, affectation, a craving for pleasing comment and praise, 
excess of fashion, ceremoniousness, outside display, eager- 
ness for popularity, and, with self-esteem, aristocracy and 
pomposity. 
Self-esteem. — 

Self-respect, dignity, independence, self-appreciation, 



HOW TO STUDY. 99 

self-reliance, self-satisfaction and complacency ; self-elevat- 
ing, lofty-mindedness, manliness, ruling instinct. Perver- 
sion: egotism, haughtiness, forwardness, tyranny, supercil- 
iousness, imperiousness, contempt and selfishness. 
Benevolence.- 

Kindness, sympathy, generosity, philanthropy, liberality, 
the accommodating, neighborly spirit; that which makes per- 
sons care for the wants and sufferings of others. Perverted : 
places too much confidence in human nature, misplaced 
sympathies; with small conscientiousness, liable to give 
away what belongs to others. 
Ideality.— 

Love of the beautiful wherever it exists ; refinement, pu- 
rity, cleanliness, taste, elegance, sense of propriety; imag- 
ination, the poetic and artistic faculty. Perversion: too 
much of the ideal, and not enough of real, practical life; ex- 
tra nice, fastidiousness. 
Sublimity. — 

Splendor; love of things that are majestic and romantic; 
perception and appreciation of the vast, illimitable, endless, 
omnipotent and infinite; enjoy mountain scenery, cataracts, 
conflagrations, sea-storms, thunder, lightning, roar of can- 
non; in writing or speaking are liable to use exaggerated 
and high-sounding words and metaphorical expressions. 
Perverted: liable to exaggerate in a story or giving a de- 
scription. 
Imitation. — f 

Assimilation, conformity, copying, patterning, mimick- 
ing; ability to assume and act the character of another; with 
only average causality, will adopt the ideas, sentiments, 
plans, style, dress of others. Perverted : will adopt bad hab- 
its, and follow the evil example of others ; with perverted 
approbativeness, are liable to assume other persons' names 
and characters, claim relationship to or personate those 
who are superior in rank, wealth and ability. Children hav- 
ing this faculty large will do what their parents do, whether 
it be good or evil. 
Human Nature. — 

Intuitive perception of character and motives ; the abil- 
ity to read, from the countenance, the disposition and moral 
state at first sight; discernment of motives; with good per- 
ceptive faculties and secretiveness, make good detectives 
find policemen; with good intellect, will not be very easily 



100 HOW TO STUDY. 

imposed upon. Perverted: it produces suspicion, lack of 
confidence, personal prejudice; with perception and mirth- 
fulness, offensive criticism of character; with agreeable- 
ness, approbativeness and secretiveness, are liable to be 
confidence-men, are full of flattery, will palaver and oil 
their victims, like serpents, just before they swallow them. 

AOREEABLENESS.— 

Affability, pleasantness, blandness, persuasiveness, abil- 
ity to please and win others ; fascinating in manners and 
conversation; with amativeness and adhesiveness, will be 
very polite and accommodating to persons of the opposite 
sex, and gain many friends among them; tendency to 
speak and act in a mellow, persuasive manner; can say 
disagreeable things pleasantly. Perverted: blarney and 
flattery. 
Adhesiveness — 

Friendship, sociability, companionship ; desire to form 
acquaintance, love of society; warm-hearted, affectionate, 
and devoted to the interest of friends; with benevolence, 
will manifest hospitality, and readily aid others. Perverted : 
undue fondness for friends and company; apt to idolize; 
can not, or will not, see their faults and imperfections ; apt 
to become surety for others. 
Cautiousness.— 

Prudence, carefulness, watchfulness, provision against 
want and danger ; anxiety,security, apprehension, protection, 
solicitude. Perverted : are afraid to venture or go ahead, 
easily worried over small matters, over-anxiety and fear 
about accidents, irresolution, timidity, procrastination; 
with perverted human nature, acquisitiveness and small 
hope, will get into a state of mind that produces fright 
and panic; this will readily explain how financial panics are 
caused. 
Continuity. 

Consecutiveness and connectedness of thought and feel- 
ing; one thing at a time; patience, prolixity; not fickle- 
minded ; the ability to concentrate the mind or will upon any- 
thing till completed. Perverted: are tedious, wearisome, 
dwell too long upon one thing, become monotonous; if a 
public speaker, will exhaust the patience of his hearers by 
long discourses. 
Inhabitiveness. — 

The home feeling, attachment to a place or a house 



HOW TO STUDY. 101 

where one was born or has lived; desire to locate, instead of 
traveling; love of country. Perverted: prejudice against 
other places and countries. 

COMBATIVENESS.— 

Resistance, defense, opposition, attack, defiance, bold- 
ness, courage, self-protection; presence of mind in times of 
danger; the ability and desire to encounter and overcome 
obstacles; disposition to be aggressive; with adhesiveness, 
will defend the interest or character of friends; with con- 
scientiousness, will vigorously prosecute the right and op- 
pose the wrong. Perverted: contentious, contrary, ill-na- 
tured ; the fault-finding and fighting disposition ; with dis- 
ordered nerves, are peevish, fretful, irritable and dissatis- 
fied; with destructiveness large and deficient moral facul- 
ties, will be hateful, bitter, quarrelsome and desperate when 
provoked. 
Destructiveness-— 

Executiveness, force of character, severity, extermina- 
tion; the go-through, break, crush, tear-down spirit; ability 
to endure pain, and, with constructiveness, perform surgi- 
cal and dental operations. This is a good faculty when 
used in connection with the moral and intellectual faculties ; 
but when they are deficient, it is one of the worst in man's 
mental organization; it gives place to wrath, revenge, 
malice, and a disposition to kill and destroy whatever is 
offensive; with approbativeness and self-esteem, will seek 
to avenge a personal wrong by fighting a duel. 
Secretiveness.— 

Policy, management, discretion, reserve, evasion, cun- 
ning, ability to restrain feeling, concealment; tactical, 
shrewd, cautiousness, in the expression of words and actions ; 
with large cautiousness, are hard to be found out; with 
large conscientiousness, will be honest in purpose, yet re- 
sort to many little cunning devices— are equivocal, may not 
tell a direct lie, nor speak the plain truth, but evade pointed 
questions; with large approbativeness, are liable to sail 
under false colors; if in business, will take care not to show 
any defects in goods. Perverted: lying, deception, sly, 
crafty, double-dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, stealingpro- 
pensity; with perverted amativeness and deficient con- 
scientiousness, will pretend to make love, and resort to all 
sorts of intrigues to win the affection of the opposite sex 
and accomplish their purpose. 



102 HOW TO STUDY. 

Acquisitiveness — 

Accumulation of money or property ; frugality, economy,, 
desire to own, love of trading and speculative, inclination 
to save, and lay up for future need. Perverted : avaricious, 
miserly, grasping; with large secretiveness and average 
conscientiousness, will make money anyhow— over- praise 
and sell poor articles for good ones; with small self-esteem 
and approbativeness, are mean in dealing, stick for the half- 
cent; with large hope and not much cautiousness, embark 
too deep in business, run great risks, and are liable to fail; 
with large secretiveness added, will buy more than can be 
paid for; pay in promises rather than money. 

MlRTHFULNESS.— 

Wit, fun, perception of the absurd and ridiculous; dispo- 
sition to joke and be merry, always laughing and making 
others laugh; with imitation, are naturally comical; with 
human nature and comparison added, will make fun by act- 
ing and showing off the absurdities of others ; with amative- 
ness and eventuality, take great delight in joking and relat- 
ing stories about the other sex; with adhesiveness, lan- 
guage, imitation and agreeableness, will be excellent com- 
pany, especially at a party. Perverted : it becomes disagree- 
able, making fun, without occasion, at any time or place ; 
with large combativeness and destructiveness, are sarcastic, 
always teasing and tantalizing, making enemies instead of 
friends ; if benevolence is deficient, will torment dumb ani- 
mals, insects, etc. 
Causality.— 

Eeasoning power, investigation, originality, comprehen- 
sion; ability to trace cause from effect; must know the why 
and wherefore of everything; the planning, contriving, in- 
venting, and scheming faculty; love of abstract thought; 
ability to synthetize; with large combativeness, love to 
argue; with large perceptives, are quick to perceive facts, 
conditions and qualities; with comparison and human 
nature, are fond of mental philosophy; with conscientious- 
ness, veneration and benevolence added, will excel in moral 
philosophy; with only average human nature, large com- 
parison, eventuality and perceptives, will be more inclined 
to natural philosophy, and will excel in the studies of the 
natural sciences. 
Comparison.— 

Reasoning from analogy, induction ; ability to analyze, 
classify, compare and draw inferences ; disposition to criti- 



HOW TO STUDY. 103 

cise, illustrate ; observe similarities and dissimilarities at a 
glance; with ideality large, will use pleasing, figurative 
illustrations in speaking or writing; with a well-developed 
intellect, full of general and practical information, can speak 
in allegories and parables ; with large language, can explain 
things well. Perverted: notice the inconsistency and lack 
of harmony in persons and things too much. 
Eventuality.— 

Memory of names and facts; recollection of general 
news, occurrences and passing events; retention of knowl- 
edge, ideas, and things once known or seen; love of history 
and reading, and, with human nature large, biography; 
with language and imitation, love to hear and relate stories ; 
with ideality, will be fond of fiction, thirst for knowledge, 
learn things easy, and are capable of becoming good literary 
scholars. Perversion; excessive reading, and crowding of 
the memory with things that are of no pratical use. 

Locality. — 

Recollection of places, roads and scenery; ability to find 
places and things ; desire to travel ; perspective knowledge ; 
intuitive perception of the whereabouts of a place ; know 
where to find an idea or statement in a book; ability to find 
one's way, either in the city or woods. The faculty used in 
the study of geography and astronomy. 

Individuality.— 

Observation; desire to know all about things; cogni- 
zance of individual objects, and perception of the qualities 
and conditions relative to them; desire to see and examine; 
curiosity; can judge of the value of a thing by its appear- 
ance. This faculty is used in selecting and buying grain, 
fruit, vegetables, dry goods, jewelry, and every kind of mer- 
chandise. It is the faculty or window through which the 
mind recognizes the distinctive character of external and 
material objects, and mentally separates mixed and general 
thoughts into definite and distinct ideas. It is the medium 
through which most kinds of knowledge enter the mind. It 
is the organ through which magnetic impressions are pro- 
duced upon the mind. With causality, will learn more by 
observation and experience than in any other way. Per- 
verted: it causes persons to stare and pry into things that 
do not concern them; if in a public meeting, will turn the 
head to see who comes in; with human nature, approbative- 
ness and form, will notice their personal appearance, dress, 



104 HOW TO STUDY 

etc. ; and with comparison added, will compare their looks 
and dress with others. 
Language. — 

The expression of ideas by words; ability to speak and 
write fluently; communication of ideas by words and looks 
with comparison added, will use just the words required to 
convey the meaning; with imitation, will be full of gestures 
in speaking; if secretiveness is small and the perceptives 
good, can speak without much preparation; but if secre- 
tiveness and cautiousness are large, often hesitate— will not 
be pointed, nor speak to the purpose. Perverted: verbosity 
and excessive talkativeness; with self-esteem and approba- 
tiveness, will render one's self annoying in company, by 
trying to do all the talking. 
Form.— 

Memory of faces, recollection of shape and things seen; 
perception of resemblance; ability to judge of configuration; 
with large ideality, will be delighted with beautiful forms, 
statuary, etc. ; with large acquisitiveness, individuality and 
locality, readily detect counterfeits; with adhesiveness, 
will be inclined to form partnerships and join societies. 
When very large, causes one to see images floating in the 
air; and, with color added, will, on pressing the eyelids 
tightly together, see combinations of the most beautiful 
colors. 
Order.— 

Method, system, arrangement; the desire and ability to 
put things, words, ideas and persons in their proper place 
readily; observe confusion, and cannot endure it; with 
locality, must have a particular place for everything; with 
large time, must have things at the right time and season ; 
with calculation, acquisitiveness and causality added, have 
good business talents. Generals, presidents of societies, 
and leaders of any kind of organization require this faculty. 
Calculation.— 

Perception of numbers, ability to reckon figures in the 
head; mental arithmetic, computation; with causality and 
comparison, will excel in the higher branches of mathemat- 
ics; with large causality, perceptives, and deficient spiritu- 
ality, believe only what can be seen, tested and proved be- 
yond a doubt. 
Tune.— 

The music faculty; ability to learn and remember tunes 



HOW TO STUDY. 105 

by rote ; harmony of sound, melody, modulation of the voice ; 
with large time, weight, ideality, amativeness and activity, 
will enjoy lively music and dancing- very much; with con - 
structiveness, imitation and causality, will be a good perfor- 
mer, and make most kinds of instruments; with large vene- 
ration and the organic quality, will enjoy sacred music. 

ALIMENTIVENESSo — 

Appetite, hunger, relish for food; with large benevo- 
lence, will set a splendid table; with adhesiveness, will 
invite friends to dinner or tea; with approbativeness and 
ideality added, will make great display at the table, love to 
attend tea meetings and any social gatherings where dinners 
or suppers are served; with fair causality and perceptives, 
will make a good cook. Perverted: gluttony; apt to over- 
load the stomach, and bring on dyspepsia. 
Practicability.— 

Ability to gather knowledge and apply it to some useful 
end; the matter-of-fact talent; can read character well by 
physiognomy; are quick to observe and take a hint; com- 
prehend ideas and perceive the quality of things at a glance ; 
will condense and find the shortest way of saying and doing 
things; will put into practice every theory one advocates; 
with human nature and the organic quality, can read the 
motives of people. School teachers having this quality can 
apparently teach more than they know; while those who 
are deficient, fail to impart the knowledge they possess. 
Subterfuge.— 

Ability to shift and evade difficulties, questions and 
failures; never fear emergencies; are prolific in ways and 
means to accomplish certain ends or purposes; are liable 
to make mischief; apt to be ironical and sarcastic; have 
much self-assurance, and are inclined to boast. 
Kesistance.— 

Disposition to fight against and overcome difficulties; 
can face opposition of any kind; ability to go up stream 
rather than down, and stem the tide of opposition and ad- 
versity; inclined to be revengeful, and feel like acting out 
the motto, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"; 
with a nervous temperament, are easily provoked over little 
things; and with only average mirthfulness and agreeable- 
ness, generally cross. 
Business Capacity. — 

The ability to do, manage and carry on business; a nat- 



106 HOW TO STUDY. 

ural tact for financial transactions; discernment of business 
principles, and a desire to execute them; perception of the 
fitness and adaptation of certain things to certain ends; th© 
desire and talent for money-making or the accumulation of 
property; worldly enthusiasm, with a determination to pos- 
sess, if possible, what the propensities like most, be it prop- 
erty or stock. Perverted : selfishness. 
Eeligious Nature . — 

That condition of heart and mind which inclines a per- 
son to a religious life; obedience to Divine authority; a dis- 
position to readily accept the truths of the Gospel and the 
teachings of the Bible in general; a willingness to be con- 
verted, and early yield to the influences of the Holy Spirit; 
a submissive, docile, believing and confiding spirit— that 
which brings man into relationship and communion with 
his Maker. 

HOW TO CULTIVATE OR RESTRAIN ANY 
FACULTY. 

To develop, enlarge and increase the power of 
any organ or faculty, it must be constantly exer- 
cised; and to restrain, weaken or decrease any organ 
or faculty, all that is necessary is to neglect it, or 
use it in a less degree than it was previously exer- 
cised, according as the nature of the case may re- 
quire. 

The excessive activity of; any faculty may be 
modified, balanced, or counteracted, in its influence 
for evil, by the vigorous action of one or more other 
faculties; and a deficient organ may likewise be aid- 
ed by being associated in its action with some larger 
organ. The organ of veneration can be cultivated 
by the observance of the Sabbath — attending the 
sanctuary and prayer-meetings especially, taking 
part in religious exercises, submitting to authority, 
obeying laws, and treating old age and everything 
sacred with respect and due reverence, It can be 
restrained by taking just the opposite course. Spir- 
ituality can be cultivated by believing statements 



HOW TO STUDY. 107 

without proof or evidence, whether of a religious, 
social or business nature— by trusting, confiding, 
and acting upon the principle that every person is 
good and upright till you find them the reverse — by 
trying to predict future events, looking forward to 
the future, and living as much as possible in antici- 
pation thereof. To restrain is to do just the oppo- 
site—be suspicious of every person or thing you meet 
or come in contact with, never believing without 
mathematical demonstration of the truth or correct- 
ness of anything, and, like doubting Thomas, treat 
all persons as impostors and rogues till you are sure 
they are true and honest; in short, be skeptical in 
your manner; though I would not advise any one to 
be so in reality, unless such person wishes to be one 
of the most miserable and God-forsaken beings in 
the world. 

To cultivate continuity (an organ generally defi- 
cient in American heads), stick to one thing in life — 
one thing at a time; have as few irons in the fire, or 
matters to attend to, as possible; be less changeable; 
when you commence a thing, aim to finish it before 
changing to something else; give your undivided at- 
tention, concentrate your thoughts, your whole mind 
and energy, to one subject, aim or pursuit. To re- 
strain, be as changeable as the weather is in Chi- 
cago — be like a bird in a tree, hopping from branch 
to branch, and never stay anywhere or do any one 
thing long; be jack-of- all-trades and master of none. 
Do this constantly, and you will manage to get 
through without accomplishing much, and but few 
people will know there ever was such a being in it. 

To cultivate self-esteem, carry your head up 
when you walk; think of yourself, remember you are 
made in the image of God, the noblest of all terres- 
trial beings; never stoop to anything mean or low; 
associate with those who have large self-esteem, and 



108 HOW TO STUDY. 

try to imbibe more of their spirit. To restrain, re- 
member you are not the Lord himself, but only one 
of his creatures, and a sinful one at that — that there 
are better and smarter persons than you in the world 
— that you most likely think more of your own pre- 
cious self than any other person thinks of you; also, 
that you make yourself unlovable and offensive to 
others, by trying to appear, in your way, superior 
to them. 

These illustrations will serve to show how all the 
organs can be improved or restrained. 

You will soon learn what a rare combination of 
faculties means. 

You will observe that no one faculty alone, how- 
ever strong, is of much use unless properly re- 
strained and combined with other powers. You will 
notice that courage must be matched by meekness, 
generosity with economy, confidence with prudence, 
etc., so that each may be healthful and wisely exer- 
cised as occasion requires. You will thus be enabled 
to draw many inferences, such as: 

Excessive physical exercise diminishes the power 
to study; and, too great devotion to intellectual 
work undermines the physical constitution. 

The cultivation of the pure intellect without the 
moral nature begets a cold, philosophical cynic, 
and, 

The cultivation of the moral nature without the 
reason begets fanatics, 

No abnormally developed element of character 
alone is helpful; in fact it may be hurtful, and that 
which is a virtue, unrestrained becomes a vice. 

As the story of Lord Lytton in "The Pilgrims of 
the Rhine" is in point, I give it here: 



HOW TO STUDY. 109 

THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: 

A PHILOSOPHER'S TALE. 

Once upon a time, several of the "Virtues, weary of living 
for ever with the Bishop of Norwich, resolved to make a lit- 
tle excursion; accordingly, though they knew everything 
on earth was very ill prepared to receive them, they thought 
they might safely venture on a tour from Westminster- 
bridge to Richmond; the day was fine and the wind in their 
favor, and as to entertainment— there seemed to be no possi- 
bility of any disagreement among the Virtues. 

They took a boat at Westminster-stairs, and just as they 
were about to push off, a poor woman, all in rags, with a 
child in her arms, implored their compassion. Charity put 
her hand into her reticule, and took out a shilling. Justice, 
turning round to look after the luggage, saw the folly which 
Charity was about to commit. "Heavens!" cried Justice. 
seizing poor Charity by the arm, "what are you doing? 
Have you never read political economy? Don't you know 
that indiscriminate almsgiving is only the encouragement 
to Idleness, the mother of Vice? You a Virtue, indeed!— 
I'm ashamed of you. Get along with you, good woman;— 
yet stay, there is a ticket for soup at the Mendicity Society: 
they'll see if you are a proper object of compassion." But 
Charity is quicker than Justice, and slipping her hand be- 
hind her, the poor woman got the shilling and the ticket for 
soup too. Economy and Generosity saw the double gift. 
"What waste!" cried Economy, frowning; "what, a ticket 
and a shilling!— either would have sufficed." 

"Either!" said Generosity; "fie! Charity should have 
given the poor creature half-a-crown, and Justice a dozen 
tickets!" So the next ten minutes were consumed in a 
quarrel between the four Virtues, which would have lasted 
all the way to Richmond, if Courage had not advised them 
to get on shore and fight it out. Upon this, the Virtues 
suddenly perceived they had a little forgotten themselves, 
and Generosity offering the first apology, they made it up 
and went on very agreeably for the next mile or two. 

The day now grew a little overcast, and a shower seemed 
at hand. Prudence, who had on a new bonnet, suggested 
the propriety of putting to shore for half an hour; Courage 
was for braving the rain; but, as most of the Virtues are 
ladies, Prudence carried it. Just as they were about to land, 
another boat cut in before them very uncivilly, and gave 



HO HOW TO STUDY. 

theirs such a shake, that Charity was all but overboard. The 
company on board the uncivil boat, who evidently thought 
the Virtues extremely low persons, for they had nothing 
very fashionable about their exterior, burst out laughing at 
Charity's discomposures especially as a large basket full of 
buns, which Charity carried with her for any hungry-looking 
children she might encounter at Richmond, fell pounce into 
the water. Courage was all on fire; he twisted his mous- 
tache, and would have made an onset on the enemy, if, to 
his great indignation Meekness had not forstalled him, by 
stepping mildly, into the hostile boat and offering both 
cheeks to the foe. This was too much even for the incivility 
of the boatmen ; they made their excuses to the Virtues ; and 
Courage, who is no bully, thought himself bound discontent- 
edly to accept them. But oh! if you had seen how Courage 
used Meekness afterwards, you could not have believed it 
possible that one Virtue could be so enraged with another! 
This quarrel between the two threw a damp on the party; 
and they proceeded on their voyage, when the shower was 
over, with anything but cordiality. I spare you the little 
squabbles that took place in the general conversation— how 
Economy found fault with all the villas by the way; and 
Temperance expressed becoming indignation at the luxu- 
ries of the City barge. They arrived at Richmond, and 
Temperance was appointed to order the dinner; meanwhile 
Hospitality, walking in the garden, fell in with a large party 
of Irishmen, and asked them to join the repast 

Imagine the long faces of Economy and Prudence, when 
they saw the addition to the company. Hospitality was all 
spirits; he rubbed his hands and called for champagne with 
the tone of a younger brother. Temperance soon grew scan- 
dalized, and Modesty herself colored at some of the jokes; 
but Hospitality, who was now half-seas over, called the one 
a milksop, and swore at the other as a prude. Away went 
the hours ; it was time to return, and they made down to the 
water-side, thoroughly out of temper with one another, 
Economy and Generosity quarrelling all the way about the 
bill and the waiters. To make up the sum of their mortifi- 
cation, they passed a boat where all the company were in 
the best possible spirits, laughing and whooping like mad ; 
and discovered these jolly companions to be two or three 
agreeable Vices, who had put themselves under the manage- 
ment of Good Temper. So you see, that even the Virtues 
may fall at loggerheads with each other, and pass a very sad 



HOW TO STUDY. Ill 

time of it, if they happen to be of opposite dispositions, and 
have forgotten to take Good Temper along with them." 

At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, 
Prudence said, with a thoughtful air, "My dear friends, I 
have been thinking that as long as we keep so entirely to- 
gether, never mixing with the rest of the world, we shall 
waste our lives in quarrelling among ourselves, and run the 
risk of being still less liked and sought after than we already 
are. You know that we are none of us popular; every one 
is quite contented to see us represented in a vaudeville, or 
described in an essay. Charity, indeed, has her name often 
taken in vain at a bazaar, or a subscription ; and the miser 
as often talks of the duty he owes to me, when he sends the 
stranger from his door, or his grandson to gaol: but still we 
only resemble so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes 
to see, but nobody cares to possess. Now, I propose 
we should all separate and take up our abode with some 
mortal or other for a year, with the power of changing at 
the end of that time should we not feel ourselves comfort- 
able; that is, should we not find that we do all the good that 
we intend: let us try the experiment, and on this day 
twelvemonth let us all meet, under the largest oak in Wind- 
sor Forest, and recount what has befallen us." Prudence 
ceased, as she always does when she has said enough; and, 
delighted at the project, the Virtues agreed to adopt it on 
the spot. They were enchanted at the idea of setting up for 
themselves, and each not doubting his or her success; for 
Economy, in her heart, thought Generosity no Virtue at all, 
and Meekness looked on Courage as little better than a hea- 
then. 

Generosity, being the most eager and active of all 
the Virtues, set off first on his journey. Justice followed, 
and kept up with him, though at a more even pace. Charity 
never heard a sigh, or saw a squalid face, but she stayed to 
cheer and console the sufferer— a kindness which somewhat 
retarded her progress. 

Courage espied a traveling-carriage, with a man and 
his wife in it quarrelling most conjugally, and he civilly 
begged he might be permitted to occupy the vacant seat op- 
posite the lady. Economy still lingered, inauiring for the 
cheapest inns. Poor Modesty looked round and sighed, on 
finding herself so near London, where she was almost un- 
known; but resolved to bend her course thither, for two rea- 
sons, first, for the novelty of the thing; and, secondly, not 



112 HOW TO STUDY. 

liking to expose herself to any risks by a journey on the 
Continent. Prudence, though the first to project, was the 
last to execute; and therefore resolved to remain where 
she was for that night, and take daylight for her travels. 

The year rolled on, and the Virtues, punctual to the ap- 
pointment, met under the oak-tree; they all came nearly at 
the same time, excepting Economy, who had got into a re- 
turn post- chaise, the horses to which, having been forty 
miles in the course of the morning, had foundered by the 
way, and retarded her journey till night set in. The Vir- 
tues looked sad and sorrowful, as people are wont to do 
after a long and fruitless journey; and, somehow or other, 
such was the wearing effect of their intercourse with the 
world, that they appeared wonderfully diminished in size. 

"Ah! my dear Generosity/' said Prudence, with a sigh, 
"as you were the first to set out on your travels, pray let us 
hear your adventures first." 

"You must know, my dear sisters," said Generosity, 
"that I had not gone many miles from you before I came to a 
small country town, in which a marching regiment was quar- 
tered ; and at an open window I beheld, leaning over a gen- 
tleman's chair, the most beautiful creature imagination ever 
pictured ; her eyes shone out like two suns of perfect happi- 
ness, and she was almost cheerful enough to have passed for 
Good Temper herself. The gentleman over whose chair she 
leaned, was her husband ; they had been married six weeks ; 
he was a lieutenant with a hundred pounds a year besides 
his pay. Greatly affected by their poverty, I instantly de- 
termined, without a second thought, to ensconce myself in 
the heart of this charming girl. During the first hour in my 
new residence I made many wise reflections, such as— Love 
never was so perfect as when accompanied by Poverty ; what 
a vulgar error it was to call the unmarried state 'Single 
Blessedness' \ how wrong it was of us Virtues never to have 
tried the marriage bond; and what a falsehood it was to say 
that husbands neglected their wives, for never was there 
anything in nature so devoted as the love of a husband— six 
weeks married! 

"The next morning, before breakfast, as the charming 
Fanny was waiting for her husband, who had not yet fin- 
ished his toilette, a poor, wretched-looking object appeared 
at the window, tearing her hair and wringing her hands ; her 
husband had that morning been dragged to prison, and her 
seven children had fought for the last mouldly crust. 



HOW TO STUDY. 113 

Prompted by me, Fanny, without inquiring further into the 
matter, drew from her silken purse a five pound note, and 
gave it to the beggar, who departed more amazed than 
grateful. Soon after the lieutenant appeared;— 'What the 

d 1 another bill! ' muttered he, as he tore the yellow 

wafer from a large, square, folded, bluish piece of paper. 
4 Oh, ah ! confound the fellow, he must be paid. I must 
trouble you, Fanny, for fifteen pounds to pay this saddler's 
bill.' 

" ' Fifteen pounds, love?' stammered Fanny, blushing. 

11 'Yes, dearest, the fifteen pounds I gave you yesterday.' 

"' I have only ten pounds,' said Fanny, hesitatingly, 'for 
such a poor, wretched-looking creature was here just now, 
that I was obliged to give her five pounds.' 

"' Five pounds? good Heavens!' exclaimed the aston- 
ished husband; 'I shall have no more money these three 
weeks.' He frowned, he bit his lips, nay he even wrung his 
hands, and walked up and down the room; worse still, he 
broke forth — s Surely, madam, you did not suppose, when 
you married a lieutenant in a marching regiment, that he 
could afford to indulge in the whim of giving five pounds to 
every mendicant who held out her hand to you? You did 
not, I say madam, imagine,' but the bridegroom was inter- 
rupted by the convulsive sobs of his wife: it was their first 
quarrel, they were but six weeks married ; he looked at her 
for one moment sternly, the next he was at her feet. * For- 
give me, dearest Fanny; forgive me, for I cannot forgive 
myself. I was too great a wretch to say what I did; and 
do believe, my own Fanny, that while I may be too poor to 
indulge you in it, I do from my heart admire so noble, so 
disinterested, a generosity.' Not a little proud did I feel to 
have been the cause of this exemplary husband's admiration 
for his amiable wife, and sincerely did I rejoice at having 
taken up my abode with these poor people. But not to tire 
you,my dear sisters, with the minutiae of detail, I shall briefly 
say that things did not long remain in this delightful posi- 
tion; for, before many months had elapsed, poor Fannie had 
to bear with her husband's increased and more frequent 
storms of passion, unfollowed by any halcyon and honey- 
moon suings for forgiveness ; for at my instigation every 
shilling went; and when there was no more to go, her trink- 
ets, and even her clothes followed. The lieutenant became 
a complete brute, and even allowed his unbridled tongue to 
call me — me, sisters, me!— heartless Extravagance." His 
8 



114 HOW TO STUDY. 

despicable brother-officers, and their gossiping wives, were 
no better; for they did nothing but animadvert upon rny 
Fannie's ostentation and absurdity, for by such names had 
they the impertinence to call me. Thus grieved to the soul 
to find myself the cause of all my poor Fanny's misfortunes 
I resolved at the end of the year to leave her, being thor- 
oughly convinced, that* however amiable and praiseworthy 
I might be in myself, I was totally unfit to be the bosom 
friend and adviser to the wife of a lieutenant in a marching 
regiment, with only a hundred pounds a year besides his 
pay." 

The Virtues groaned their sympathy with the unfortu- 
nate Fanny; and Prudence, turning to Justice said, "I long 
to hear what you have been doing, fori am certain you can- 
not have occasioned harm to any one." 

Justice shook her head and said, "Alas ! I find that there 
are times and places when even I do better not to appear, 
as a short account of my adventures will prove to you. No 
sooner had I left you when I instantly repaired to India, and 
took up my abode with a Brahmin. I was much shocked 
by the dreadful inequalities of condition that reigned in the 
several castes, and I longed to relieve the poor Pariah from 
his ignominious destiny ; accordingly I set seriously to work 
on reform. I insisted upon the iniquity of abandoning men 
from their birth to an irremediable state of contempt, from 
which no virtue could exalt them. The Brahmins looked 
upon ray Brahmin with ineffable horror. They called me 
the most wicked of vices; they saw no distinction between 
Justice and Atheism. I uprooted their society— that was 
sufficient crime. 

"But the worst was, that the Pariahs themselves re- 
garded me with suspicion; they thought it unnatural in a 
Brahmin to care for a Pariah! And one called me 'Mad- 
ness;' an other, 'Ambition;' and a third, 'The Desire to in- 
novate.' My poor Brahmin [led a miserable life of it; 
when one day, after observing, at my dictation, that he 
thought a Pariah's life as much entitled to respect as a 
cow's, he was hurried away by the priests and secretly 
broiled on the altar, as a fitting reward for his sacrilege. I 
fled hither in great tribulation, persuaded that in some 
countries even Justice may do harm." 

"As for me," said Charity, not waiting to be asked, "I 
grieve to say that I was silly enough to take up my abode 
with an old lady in Dublin, who never knew what discre- 



HOW TO STUDY. 115 

tion was, and always acted from impulse; my instigation 
was irresistible, and the money she gave in her drives 
through the suburbs of Dublin was so lavishly spent, that it 
kept all the rascals of the city in idleness and whisky. I 
found to my great horror that I was a main cause of a terri- 
ble epidemic, and that to give alms without discretion was 
to spread poverty without help. I left the city when my 
year was out, and, as ill-luck would have it, just at the time 
when I was most wanted." 

"And, oh !" cried Hospitality, "I went to Ireland also. I 
fixed my abode with a squireen ; I ruined him in a year, and 
only left him because he had no longer a hovel to keep me 
in." 

"As for myself," said Temperance, "I entered the breast 
of an English legislator, and he brought in a bill against ale- 
houses; the consequence was, that the laborers took to gin, 
and I have been forced to confess, that Temperance may be 
too zealous when she dictates too vehemently to others." 

"Well," said Courage, keeping more in the background 
than he had ever done before, and looking rather ashamed 
of himself, "that traveling carriage I got into belonged to a 
German general and his wife, who were returning to their 
own country. Growing very cold as we proceeded, she 
wrapped me up in a polonaise ; but the cold increasing, I in- 
advertently crept into her bosom ; once there I could not get 
out, and from thenceforward the poor general had consider- 
ably the worst of it. She became so provoking, that I won- 
dered how he could refrain from an explosion. To do him 
justice, he did at last threaten to get out of the carriage; 
upon which, roused by me, she collared him — and conquered. 
When he got to his own district, things grew worse, for if 
any aide-de-camp offended her, she insisted that he might 
be publicly reprimanded; and should the poor general re- 
fuse, she would with her own hands confer a caning upon 
the delinquent. The additional force she had gained in me 
was too much odds against the poor general, and he died of 
a broken heart, six months after my liaison with his wife. 
She after this became so dreaded and detested, that a con- 
spiracy was formed to poison her; this daunted even me, so 
I left her without delay — et me void!" 

"Humph!" said Meekness, with an air of triumph; "I, at 
least, have been more successful than you. On seeing much 
in the papers of the cruelties practised by the Turks on the 
Greeks, I thought my presence would enable the poor suf- 



116 HOW TO STUDY. 

ferers to bear their misfortunes calmly. I went to Greece, 
then, at a moment when a well-planned and practicable 
scheme of emancipating themselves from the Turkish yoke 
was arousing their youth. "Without confining myself to one 
individual, I flitted from breast to breast; I meekened the 
whole nation; my remonstrances against the insurrection 
succeeded, and I had the satisfaction of leaving a whole 
people ready to be killed, or strangled, with the most Christ- 
ian resignation in the world." 

The Virtues, who had been a little cheered by the open- 
ing self-complacency of Meekness, would not, to her great 
astonishment, allow that she had succeeded a whit more 
happily than her sisters, and called next upon Modesty for 
her confession. 

"You know," said the amiable young lady, "that I went 
to London in search of a situation. I spent three months 
of the twelve in going from house to house, but I could not 
get a single person to receive me. The ladies declared they 
never saw so old-fashioned a gawky, and civilly recom- 
mended me to their abigails; the abigails turned me round 
with a stare, and then pushed me down to the kitchen and 
the fat scullion-maids ; who assured me, that 'in the respect- 
able families they had the honor to live in, they had never 
even heard of my name.' One young housemaid, just from 
the country, did indeed receive me with some sort of civil- 
ity; but she very soon lost me in the servants' hall. I now 
took refuge with the other sex, as the least uncourteous. I 
was fortunate enough to find a young gentleman of remark- 
able talents, who welcomed me with open arms. He was 
full of learning, gentleness, and honesty. I had only one 
rival— Ambition. We both contended for an absolute em- 
pire over him. Whatever Ambition suggested, I damped. 
Did Ambition urge him to begin a book, I persuaded him it 
was not worth publication. Did he get up, full of knowledge, 
and instigated by my rival to make a speech (for he was in 
parliament), I shocked him with the sense of his assurance— 
I made his voice droop and his accents falter. At last, with 
an indignant sigh, my rival left him; he retired into the 
country, took orders, and renounced a career he had fondly 
hoped would be serviceable to others; but finding I did not 
suffice for his happiness, and piqued at his melancholy, I 
left him before the end of the year, and he has since taken 
to drinking." 

The eyes of the Virtues were all turned to Prudence. 



HOW TO STUDY. 117 

She was their last hope— "I am just where I set out," said 
that discreet Virtue: "I, have done neither good nor harm. 
To avoid temptation, I went and lived with a hermit, to 
whom I soon found that I could be of no use beyond warn- 
ing him not to overboil his peas and lentils, not to leave his 
door open when a storm threatened, and not to fill his 
pitcher too full at the neighboring spring. I am thus the 
only one of you that never did harm ; but only because I am 
the only one of you that never had an opportunity of doing 
it! In a word," continued Prudence thoughtfully,— "in a 
word, my friends, circumstances are necessary to the 
Virtues themselves. Had, for instance, Economy changed 
with Generosity, and gone to the poor lieutenant's wife, and 
had I lodged with the Irish squireen, instead of Hospitality, 
what misfortunes would have been saved to both ! Alas! I 
perceive we lose all our efficacy when we are misplaced ; 
and then, though in reality. Virtues, we operate as Vices. 
Circumstances must be favorable to our exertions, and 
harmonious with our nature ; and we lose our very divinity 
unless Wisdom direct our footsteps to the home we should 
inhabit, and the dispositions we should govern." 



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